New EU blog platform to be launched by EurActiv

EurActiv, the online portal on EU affairs, is set to launch soon its new blogging platform BlogActiv. The site is already available as alpha version under http://www.blogactiv.eu

The new site is run independently from EurActiv's main portal www.euractiv.com and builds on user-generated content. But in the future good content from BlogActiv might become referenced within the main EurActiv portal. Mathew Lowry, who is in charge of BlogActiv.eu, explains why bloggers should join the new platform:

Setting up on Blogactiv will be no more difficult, but the audience will be far easier to create: the most popular and noteworthy blogs will receive exposure on the relevant sections of Euractiv.com and its CrossLingual Network of sites across Europe, which between them receive 475,000 visitors every month.

In addition, BlogActiv runs on WordPress, allowing bloggers to use industry standard software and plugins for their EU blogs. This will also facilitate the import of existing blogs into the new platform, which is an interesting option. Convincing bloggers who already run an EU-related blog to join BlogActiv will still be hard work though.

The site's slogan "Expert-generated content for Europe" suggests that BlogActiv will not so much target students and young people living in Europe (which might feel more at home at Cafebabel's Community) but will try to motivate Brussels based organisations, lobbyists and analysts to join the blogosphere.

And indeed the fight between Babelblogs and Blogactiv for "Brussels' experts" seems to have already started: Cafebabel has scheduled an event on 8 February where they will ...

... present the new online community tools and how you- whether you are representing an NGO, an MEP, a company or simply yourself- can use them

BlogActiv's success will largely depend on the commitment from the user base and the quality of bloggers' content. Though the site runs advertising it hasn't announced any revenue sharing plans for bloggers. BlogActiv's main incentive will be visibility.

The test drive already shows some interesting blogs, including the excellent 3e Intelligence blog by EurActiv's former editor-in-chief Willy de Backer. If BlogActiv manages in the coming weeks to get relevant European federations or some of the think tanks on board it could quickly become the central discussion point in Brussels' blogosphere.

Update: Blogactiv.eu has been officially launched on Thursday, 8 November 2007. In the meanwhile the site's slogan has been updated to "Europeans Challenge Europe"