No more certain ideas of Europe

In this farewell post, the Economist’s Certain Ideas of Europe blog announces its end after 22 months.

I have questions, but no answers.

  • Has the Economist run out of ideas about Europe?
  • Has the writer of the Europe blog has left?
  • Has the Economist decided that blogs don’t fit in its online personality? The final post directs readers to a number of other locations, but not to another blog.
  • How will this change the Economist’s online personality? As its ‘behind the curtain‘ blog  said this year: “For a while now at The Economist, we’ve been wrestling with how we can better engage with our readers to develop our website.”

4 Comments

Werner Patels
January 05, 2009 | 11:47 PM

I think it's not a dearth of ideas. We shouldn't forget that a blog operated by a media company such as this is not some "hobbyhorse". Someone must be paid to maintain the blog and fill it with content. Just as some publications have been cutting back on size, home delivery, etc., The Economist is probably also undergoing some cutbacks in these difficult times. The ideas are there, but they'll go into the proper articles of the magazines, rather than an add-on blog on the site, which many readers might skip altogether.

Nosemonkey » Blog Archive » The Economist, the EU and online media strategies
January 02, 2009 | 7:27 PM

[...] Affairs 2.0 asks a few questions. Has the writer left? I doubt it - I’m pretty certain it was produced by more than one staffer. [...]

Nosemonkey » The Economist, the EU and online media strategies
December 22, 2008 | 12:21 PM

[...] blog Certain Ideas of Europe is - for reasons unknown - being cancelled. Public Affairs 2.0 asks a few questions. Has the writer left? I doubt it - I’m pretty certain it was produced by more than one staffer. [...]

The Economist, the EU and online media strategies | Nosemonkey’s EUtopia
December 19, 2008 | 3:25 PM

[...] Affairs 2.0 asks a few questions. Has the writer left? I doubt it - I’m pretty certain it was produced by more than one [...]