with his childhood friend mark van den heuvel, van nieuwkerk started his career in journalism interviewing sportsmen and sportswomen for the dutch newspaper "het parool". interviewees included chess grandmasters kasparov and karpov, and footballer johnny rep. soon after, he also started interviewing writers, and he was responsible for renewing the literary section of the newspaper. in 1988, he became an editor for the arts section. in 1996, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of "het parool".