Posted by Dirk Westphal

Thank you, Marci, for the opportunity to be a guest in the Limelight Blog all the way from Berlin. And we truly have some exciting developments here:

Our success is really only due to our great writers – we currently have about 350 on Suite101.de. It's wonderful to see how they just keep getting better and better attracting more and more readers. Suite101.de is fast becoming the largest independent, German general interest online magazine. With new features and several editorial specials planned, 2009 will be an exciting year.

So we really have some good news in times of the global media crisis. Suite101.de attracted 1.04 million unique visitors in December 2008! With that Suite101's German site now has almost five times as many readers as we did six months ago. That's much earlier than we had ever expected. And January is starting 2009 off with a good start too.

Also in terms of articles we have something to celebrate: a few days before Christmas, Judith Weibrecht, travel journalist from Fürth (a lovely city in the heart of Bavaria), published Suite101.de's 10,000th article. The title being: Tschechien: Per Rad von Bad zu Bad (Czech Republic: By Bike from Spa to Spa).

We're not quite yet as big as Suite101.com, but we still plan to take you over in March 2027 ;-)

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller

Q: What goes from zero to one million in ten months?

A: Suite101.de!!

We're popping champagne corks on both sides of the Atlantic today as the news is official: the German writers' network launched by Suite101.com Media in February of last year, broke through the important one million mark in December. Suite101.de attracted over one million unique visitors during the month of December.

Was it the great articles?

The quality of writers?

Let's ask Dirk Westphal, our editor-in-chief in Berlin...

Posted by Lima A

Every year, professional journalism faces increased challenges and opportunities as traditional media organizations struggle to embrace the online world.

Case in point: The internet provides the general public with exceptional opportunities to become journalists themselves. Popular sites, like YouTube, have given rise to the media phenomenon known as Citizen Journalism: a type of journalism requiring no professional accreditation, that allows users to assume a journalistic role simply by being in the right place, at the right time.

With no way of controlling massive amounts of people-generated content on the internet, the practice of traditional journalism is forced to adapt itself to contemporary "free-for-all" media coverage. Yet with every challenge, comes opportunity.

In an article written for iMedia Connection, Bennett Zucker recognizes that “tools and applications are the new editorial bundles.” Proof of this concept lies in the fact more and more news organizations elect to support user-generated content by embracing, rather than condemning, this new brand of media.

CBC.ca, a Canadian news company, hopped on the bandwagon with a feature called “Your Story” wherein people can document what’s important to them and "what counts in [their] community".

The site supports citizen journalism by allowing individuals to upload video, text or email submissions from cell phones or computers. The stories may have originated within the community, and/or they may also include images, tips and comments “enhanced” by professional journalists.

With the global economic crisis in full bloom, traditional media can no longer ignore the inevitable trajectory. Bennett Zucker’s bold conclusion may indeed ring true: it's time for the journalism industry to "lead with technology, or die."