In February, I wrote about what some French newspapers are doing with blogs – Le Monde with its reader blogs and Libration with its journalists’ blogs.
Last month, there was news that VNU France launched a consumer blog portal, following its launch of blogs for its journalists across Europe. Tech publisher 01Net also launched a blog portal.
So it’s no surprise to hear news from Loic Le Meur of yet more blog services launched by organizations in France – Cadres OnLine, one of the main human resources portals in France, has just launched jobs blogs; and youth radio station Europe 2 relaunched its blog platform.
All of these organizations offer their blog services on TypePad, the hosted blog service from Six Apart (of which Loic is the Exec VP in Europe – Shel and I interviewed Loic in February for The Hobson & Holtz Report podcast.).
France isn’t actually the country that would naturally spring to mind when you think about technology innovation and early adoption. The UK, Sweden and perhaps Germany would more readily be the countries I’d think of. Yet France seems to be much more at the leading edge in embracing new media channels like blogs. And that reflects the refreshing can-do attitude of many business people there, one that I’ve definitely encountered in my own experience in recent months.
For instance, look at how many senior executives in France are members of the CEO Bloggers Club – over 40. Then look at the CEO Blogs List on the New PR Wiki that includes 35 senior business executives in France who are bloggers – the single largest country group after the US.
It looks like the heart of the European business blogosphere is firmly in France. Another non-surprise, then, when you look at what’s also happening in Paris on 25 April – the one-day Les Blogs conference with 223 confirmed participants (so far), of which about half are from France.
Yes, it’s all happening in France at the moment.
Read Neville’s post from February
LeMonde and its readers’ blogs
Libration and its journalists’ blogs.
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.
