Here's what the reader has to say

Weblogs How "Citizen" works
Journalism": The commuter paper Le Matin Bleu lets its readers use weblogs
write. More than 5000 Romands are already publishing in a personal
Bleublog. Readers of Le Matin Bleu
act as commentators, while the editors of the
Free newspaper dispenses with opinion articles - a practice that is unique in Switzerland
unique model to date. Example: An otherwise unknown
Geneva native Dominique Bornand says straight away if he doesn't like something.
fits. Unfiltered, direct and sometimes polemical. Especially in focus
the blogger has the free newspaper Le Matin Bleu. The name of their
editor-in-chief, Tristan Cerf, he unceremoniously distorted into a
"sad deer" (triste cerf). He accuses the publisher Edipresse of
to count only the money, but not the spelling mistakes.

In and of itself, this would not be surprising, understand
many bloggers have proved themselves to be sleuths for (supposed) mass media
Misconduct. But Bornand uses one of the following for his tirades
infrastructure, which Le Matin Bleu makes available to him free of charge.
As if in gratitude for the free weblog, he retorts. "So that
we have to live with," says Jérôme Vittoz, who works at the Western Swiss
free newspaper is responsible for the lead blogs. "We only take
if someone breaks the law." So far, this has only
happened two or three times. "Because of pornography. Otherwise we respect
We respect the bloggers' opinions, even if they are not our own."

Born out of necessity
While Dominique Bornand presents himself in his Bleublog as an observer and
Critics of Le Matin Bleu stage, publish another 5000
French-speaking Swiss on the same platform. From the
cartoonist François Maret ("Le Man in Black"), who has published his Bleublog
as a public sketchbook, about the candidates for the
Miss Beauté beauty pageant, to the countless nameless
Teenagers who report on going out at the weekend can be found at
a Bleublog on almost every conceivable topic.

From 0 to 5 in two months
Since March 1, the free newspaper has been offering the following instead of a classic
Internet portal with news and a few interactive gadgets
readers the opportunity to create their own personal weblog free of charge.
open. "It was clear to us from the outset that Le Matin Bleu would also be
must be present on the Internet," says Jérôme Vittoz. "But simply a
It didn't make much sense for us to put another portal online,
especially as it was foreseeable that our main competitor 20 minutes would have exactly this
would follow this path."

What to do? Vittoz, employee in the marketing department of Le Matin,
finally had the brilliant idea. Why not the young one?
Internet-savvy readership a platform where they can find information about
can express their own taste? His superiors at
Edipresse were easily convinced by this project after initial skepticism.
have been convincing. After all, the financial outlay for the
provision of the weblogs is significantly lower than the costs for a
complete online editorial team.

Vittoz obviously had a good nose. As soon as it was launched, the
The number of newly opened lead blogs is soaring - and it is doing so
to date. In the first three months or so, more than 5000
Romands decided to use their personal texts and pictures from now on.
on the Internet offshoot of the Edipresse free newspaper.
However, those who blog at Le Matin Bleu do not just do so ad personam. The
general terms and conditions state that the editorial team
is authorized to remove content from the network notebooks at will.
further utilized. It is conceivable, for example, that a particularly successful
Weblog entry is reprinted in Le Matin Bleu.

"We're not there yet," says Jérôme Vittoz, but confirms: "The
is certainly a conceivable scenario." The last word on such
However, the editorial team has the most important role in cross-media merging. There it says
Although the idea is not opposed to the idea, it is currently considered
However, the timing is still premature. Philippe Messeiller,
deputy editor-in-chief of Le Matin Bleu, sees above all a
Danger: "One of our maxims is the complete renunciation of
commentary elements, we convey facts." When suddenly
opinion pieces were included in the paper, this principle would be
scribed.

A rapprochement between print and online is taking place, for the time being only
selectively, but still takes place. On page 2, the editorial team presents
of the free newspaper presents two weblogs from the universe of Bleublogs.
"This is a special incentive for the bloggers: whoever makes it into the newspaper
thus opens up new circles of readers and increases its
level of awareness," explains Vittoz. In general: competitive elements
play an important role as incentive mechanisms in the Bleublog - like
in the entire blogosphere. On the portal at
www.bleublog.ch shows which bloggers publish most actively,
which blog is commented on most frequently and who is the most popular
moment has just published a text or an image.

Even if there are no texts from lead bloggers in the newspaper (yet)
are published, the editorial team uses the quick and easy
online media form as an additional channel. This was also the case on April 25, when the
Journalists are shown footage filmed with a cell phone camera of a
were sent to the victims of the unpeaceful arrest operation. "We wanted these
images accessible to the public, only on paper can you
It's difficult to reproduce a movie," says Philippe Messeiller. So the
editors opened their own Bleublog without further ado and the three
Film sequences published. In the newspaper, they drew attention to the blog
attentive. More than 200 opinions on the controversial police action
were received in the comments section of this editorial blog.

Advertising - mediated by Google
The Bleublogs are not just a way of playing for some of the
Le Matin Bleu readership, they are also a factor on the
Revenue page. Ads are displayed on every weblog, which the
search engine operator Google. This is not yet working
optimal, explains Jérôme Vittoz. "There are still too few in French-speaking Switzerland
Companies that want to place their ads via Google." This is
But it is only a matter of time before this channel is used more.
"After all, Bleublog continues to grow." And the more pairs of eyes a
offer, the more attractive it will also be for
Advertisers.

Free is the trump card
The success of free newspapers and (free) blogs in French-speaking Switzerland
- especially among young people - can also be expressed in figures. More
More than 1000 pupils aged between 12 and 18 have
in March about their media consumption behavior. On May 10
the Conference of the Directors of Education of French-speaking Switzerland and the Canton of
Ticino presented the results.

The study shows that almost one in three young people
have their own weblog and more than half read blogs regularly.
The Internet is primarily used by 12 to 18-year-olds for communication
and entertainment and less for targeted research for the
School. Overall, young people are increasingly sitting in front of a
computer screen and watch less television. The proportion of those who
watch TV news daily has increased significantly compared to the previous year.
(decrease from 32 to 25 percent).

But it's not just the Internet that benefits from TV buffs; the
Free newspapers are en vogue in French-speaking Switzerland. The launch of Le
Matin Bleu and 20 minutes would have increasingly encouraged young people to
newspaper reading, write the French-speaking Swiss
Education directors. Six out of ten of those surveyed now read at least
a newspaper or magazine three times a week. If the
publication is offered free of charge, the young people
especially on the way to school, where they can get out of the
"Caissette" with a free newspaper. Whereas just a
year, less than a quarter of those surveyed said they had been to school before
and reading the newspaper during breaks, the number is now well over
half of 12- to 18-year-olds.

Nick Lüthi