Blogging is still a difficult concept for most news media in Germany. A
handful of media organizations are doing quite well, but many media websites still
fear that kind of open conversation.
Axel Springer’s car magazine, AutoBild.de, obviously is willing to
give it a try. It announced today a cooperation with partner bloggers
who continue to operate separate blogs but are members of the new
AutoBild blog network. Those blogs were still hidden in the “tuning”
section of the website at the time of this writing, and there was only
limited integration, but the intention to open up the site for more user
interaction is clear.
AutoBild already publishes a podcast (since August 2005) called AutoPodcast. It has been a
radio-show style broadcast from the beginning: no dull reading of
printed articles, but instead a mix of music, conversation, and information;
editors and reporters of AutoBild.de are interviewed about their stories;
and, of course, a sponsor always pays for the service. (However, I don’t
have information on how many people listen to it on a regular basis.)
