Jeff Jarvis reviews the new blog and online shop of Kai Diekmann, head of German newspaper Bild.
Diekmann is a brand in himself and in this respect unmatched in the Anglophone world, suggests Jarvis – and he’s getting attention for his paper.
“There’s a 360-degree tour of his office, starring him. Click on his possessions and learn more – about, for example, a piece of the Berlin Wall signed by Helmut Kohl, Mikhail Gorbachev, and George Bush (41). He has a bio and lots of photos. Diekmann interviews himself (Why are you writing a blog, he asks. ‘I’m just incurably vain,’ he answers). He posts video he shoots himself – ‘ich bin Videoblogger-in-Chief für Bild.de’ – including one in Baghdad and another of him getting a shot. He brags about the commercials for Bild made by Bild’s readers, who understand its brand well. He links gleefully to an interview with a competitive publisher and scion of a German publishing family (founders of Der Spiegel) who says the esteemed Süddeutsche Zeitung won’t be around on paper in 20 years – but Bild will,” writes Jarvis.