Die Blogosphäre

Germany stands out on the 2.0 scene as the world leader in e-commerce. In the news segment, this translates in innovations such as netZeitung, the world’s first web-only news outlet (owned today by Mecom through Orkla Media).

The German market for news is remarkable for the strength of its press. Despite a steady decline in circulation, German publishers still hope to successfully overcome these difficult times. And they have the cash for this, due mostly to their investments in Eastern Europe (this includes Austrian publisher Styria Media).

Most impressive are their aggressive online buying policies, as Axel Springer (Bild, Die Welt) paid more than €100m for Aufeminin.com and Holtzbrinck (Die Zeit) about the same amount for local Facebook StudiVZ.

Such moves, however, highlight the inability of German publishers to come up with successful web ventures themselves.

Below's a list of media- and web-related blogs I read:

• Basic Thinking, by Robert Basic. Authoritative blog on 2.0 matters by an IT entrepreneur from Frankfurt.
• Medien Gedanken, by Daniel Bouhs. Not especially webby but all-encompassing media blog by a freelancer for the Christian news agency EPD.
• Medien Piraten, by Peer Schader. Watchdog for TV matters by freelance journalist.
• Bildblog. Extremely popular blog run by several journalists as a watchdog for the (even more popular) tabloid Bild Zeitung.