Johnny Haeusler is the man behind Spreeblick, one of Germany’s most read blogs. In a Netzeitung interview, he defines how to write a successful blog: “To passionately and radically subjective spread your opinions in a small group”. As readership grows (Spreeblick has between 6000 and 12000 daily visitors, with spikes much higher), so does pressure on the “radical” in subjective, he admits.

In addition to good, personal, to the point writing and linking, audio and video is important to Spreeblick’s appeal, according to Haeusler.

Haeusler criticizes newspapers who now “force” their journalists to blog – writers who mostly don’t want to or don’t know the genre: “Why don’t they hire bloggers with experience?”