The FLEET-project is a remarkable effort in many respects. It unites a number of family-owned papers with a traditional preference for solo actions, it relates the print publishers to scores of new media initiatives, and it demonstrates that industry and research can go hand in hand: eight specialised research centres participate. The newspaper world is represented in its full variety, from regional papers (Concentra group: Belang van Limburg, Gazet van Antwerpen), to national dailies (e.g. De Standaard) to leading newsmagazines like Knack. They team up with successful blogging initiatives and providers like MSN. Both the Flemish newspaper publishers association DVD and the national journalist union AVBB partake and provide nationwide dissemination of results.
The project funding of € 2.3 million in total comes from the Flemish government which realises the strategic importance of a healthy and innovative information sector. FLEET is just one of a range of e-media projects which are currently undertaken in Flanders, boosting this small European region as a perfect living lab, where world players like HP and Microsoft come to test their novel applications and concepts.

The core theme of FLEET is the changing role of information delivery in a digital communication environment. This is analysed from various perspectives: the fast changing multi-player production level, the evolution of content categories and the emergence of the active reader / consumer. The implications for business models, legal frameworks and policy contexts receive a lot of attention.

One of the focuses is the ever broadening scope of e-publishing, bringing in all sorts of new market parties. The international competition is an important factor for a small country like Belgium, the advent of providers producing their own content of course, and the rise of ‘embedded publishing’ (organisational as opposed to professional publishing), which will soon exceed in importance the more individualistic blogosphere.

The project will look into the fundamental aspects of these paradigmatic change processes (the brains part), but also, in the hands-on part, pay a lot of attention to concrete, practical support and advice. FLEET will launch a comprehensive online knowledge bank next month, featuring useful services such as data sets of relevant actors, a trendflagging overview, a legal hand book and a European monitor for current e-payment models to mention a few. These services will gradually come available during the course of the year.

More detail about FLEET can be obtained from the project managing research centres SMIT and EC/DC. Mailto: hdecanck@vub.ac.be or jan.bierhoff@ecdc.info