After Successful Test: Blendle Deutschland to Go Live in Two Weeks
We’ve been getting a lot of love.
Today, I’m excited to announce a launch date for Blendle’s first international version.
On September 14, Blendle Deutschland will open to all.
Seriously though, this is a big deal.
We’ve been testing our platform in the past few weeks, and after overwhelmingly positive feedback, we decided on that date. We feel by September 14, we’ll be ready. Ready to give Germany the most beautiful and easy to use platform to read high quality journalism online without subscription. For the first time, people in Germany will be able to pay only for what they read and love. For the first time, they’ll be able to get their money back, if they think what they just read wasn’t worth the money. That’s Blendle.
Our mission is to make the world’s best journalism available to everyone.
We’ve been getting a lot of love
And this mission seems to resonate. We’ve been slowly adding more users to our beta, and the reaction we got was overwhelmingly positive. “After testing Blendle for two days, I have to say, I’m pretty taken by it,” said one user of the beta. “Outstandingly done,” said one of our users from Berlin. “Why did you make us wait for such a long time?” asked this one.
Journalists tested the platform, calling it “very user friendly” (SPIEGEL Online), “promising” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), or even a possible “solution to all the problems of print media on the internet” (Medienwoche).
A lot of people seem to be happy. This has been extremely encouraging. But let me get serious for a moment. As a founder of Blendle, I’m not considering this a walk in the park. I, too, know that we have had amazing success in Holland, convincing more than 400.000 people to use our platform. I also know that two thirds of these readers are under 35, and are probably paying for journalism for the first time in their lives.
But we’re still a tiny start-up, trying to do what none of the giant publishers have managed to do before. Convincing young people that it’s worth to pay for high quality journalism.
I’m confident that we can do this.
People just need to try Blendle. Like Mathias Blumencron, Frankfurter Allgemeine’s digital chief. “At first I thought, Blendle would present just another attempt of establishing an elecronic cashier for articles,” he recently told me, looking back to our first conversation. “But then I discovered: This is really well done, it’s intelligent and it’s the first time that paying for articles could actually be fun. Blendle is basically a social network for discovering and buying the most fascinating articles of the day.”
Germany’s most comprehensive selection
From day one, Blendle is going to have the most comprehensive selection of any digital newsstand in the country. All major publishers are on board. There are all stories from DER SPIEGEL, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, DIE ZEIT, Bild am Sonntag, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and many, many big titles more. Most of these stories are not available to read anywhere else online without a subscription.
Niche content is equally important to us. On Blendle, you’ll also find publications that are for a smaller, more specific audience, whose journalists are experts on one specific topic. Among my favorites are 11 Freunde, that is so much more than just a football magazine, BILANZ, that explains the world through the eyes of economists or NEON, that combines beautiful writing with a progressive, young worldview.
That’s what’s gonna be available to every single person in Germany at the click of a button. Literally.
There are only a few weeks to go. We can’t wait.
Go sign up here! We’re still testing up until September 14, and you can help. Also: Follow us on Twitter.
