Why did you decide to launch a blog in January 2006?
It was to respond to readers’ extensive demands concerning dialogue and exchange, which the print edition couldn’t satisfy. We receive an enormous amount of mail on news topics, and with blogs growing, we had the idea to complement and intensify our exchange with readers through a blog.

How has the blog grow in strength?
The growth has been continuous, with a lapse last summer after the soccer World Cup ended. Just after the cup, the audience declined, but beginning in September the audience returned.

What we observed is that when there is a collective emotional experience, people need to express themselves. The need for personal expression soars with emotion. In the old days, this was done through the mail and the phone. Now it’s through blogs.

How often do you blog? How does your blogging fit in your daily job as Director of Ouest France news?
I write very early in the morning. I also post in the evening, to sum up the day. During the day, all I do is moderate the debate, checking on the latest comments. If a comment raises questions, I leave the response for the evening. It easily takes up two hours in the morning and two hours at night, so yes, it really is a part-time job.

I check comments every two hours and I put them online. Most of the time, when I don’t retain a comment for the blog (inappropriate and intolerant comments aside), I try to respond to the reader to explain why. Usually it’s because the comment repeats another one, or is emitted by a ‘blog freak’. What surprises me is the quality of the comments. Our readers are very cultured, very concerned by issues of general communal interest.

I also try to open the blog progressively so that it becomes the blog of the newspaper – newspaper in the sense of a readership community. A large part of the paper’s activity revolves around giving a voice to those who take part in local initiatives, not only looking at what they do, but also what they think about these issues.

After blogging for a year, the real problem in France is the lack of space for public debate. We’re trying to resolve it with blogs, some TV shows and more, but we need  to find a public space for debate. Citizens need to speak out.

The blog is a way to facilitate this exchange.

How are the topics selected?
I propose topics, and we decide with the senior news executives whether to discuss a subject or not.

How do you promote a productive conversation?
A blog mustn’t merely be a string of blog articles. All I do is leave a posting, an opinion. When the paper had good coverage of an issue, there’s little need to come back on it. I try to cover news topics that haven’t been discussed, for which it is important to stimulate collective opinion.

A kind of collective intelligence then builds itself. I stand back once the posting has been put online. I come back to it later to either synthesize the series of comments, or to relaunch the debate, taking into account the comments.
There are people on the blog whose opinions I don’t share. But as long as they are expressed respectfully, I accept them. That’s what pushes the debate.

Finally, a general opinion shapes itself. Little by little the people respect each other. It’s in the nature of the relationship of Ouest France and its readers: respect is both felt and required by readers.

Why call the blog “the newsroom’s blog” if you are the only one to really write it? Who is it who speaks, Didier Pillet the person, the journalist, or the voice of Ouest France?
It’s Ouest France. The blog is a working tool that speaks to citizen readers. Since its origins, Ouest France hasn’t catered to consumers, it speaks to citizens. For example, on the issue of the reform of social VAT, I invited professor Michel Godet to develop his point of view on the blog. First, his piece goes on the blog, then it arouses reactions, and finally we can print it in the paper. For another editorial I am preparing for Thursday, I have announced the discussion topics on the blog on Monday. There are already a number of comments, which will feed into the editorial I write.

What are the differences between a print editorial and an online posting?
There is a more personal relationship on the blog, which creates complicity between a posting’s writer and its reader. Secondly, the writer is not on a pedestal as much and is on a level playing field with the reader. That’s the revolution of the blog, putting us at the same level. Thirdly, the language in postings can be more casual than in print. A reader’s comment best describes this: “On the blog we wear slippers, and when we read the printed Ouest France, we wear our Sunday suit.”

How do you reconcile the slipper blogger and the Sunday suit journalist?
I’m a journalist. People expect me to observe society and provide useful and accurate information. The blog is not an ego exercise. There are a number of subjects that I know well, and many others that I know less about.

One mustn’t make an erroneous division between bloggers and journalists. The rivalries between journalists and bloggers are fantasy. Bloggers don’t think of themselves as journalists, they actually count on journalists to investigate and go in-depth on issues.

What does the blog bring to the newspaper (in terms of web traffic)?
The main website has 1.5 million unique visitors per month. The blog has 50,000. The share of people who actually write on the blog is relatively limited. On small days, there are about 30 comments. On a busy day, there can be up to 100.

What’s the commercial or monetary input?
There is none. The blog inscribes itself in Ouest France’s global online offerings. The blog is becoming increasingly referenced though and attracting some advertisers.

After 14 months, is it a success? What are the lessons?
I don’t know that it’s a success. I know that the users who visit the blog think so. The main lesson: we need to put more issues up for debate. I started off with one posting per week but I’m aiming at one posting per day, and I think we’ll need to go further. We must increase the diversity of issues on the blog to fulfill the readers’ expectations. But there’s a problem with the staff’s availabilities.

What are the current projects to expand the blog?
More interlinking with other blogs, to develop our relationship with them. I also don’t think the blog should only be text-based. I’d like to offer mini video interviews – one or two minutes long – with people who might have some light to shed on specific news issues. In this field of work, we meet interesting people every day that could bring useful insight on the news.

What about launching new blogs? To be tended by other staffers?
The main project is to develop “the newsroom blog” and bring more staffers in to contribute. Unlike some other newspapers, we don’t have any projects for more personal blogs written by journalists.

How has the role of blogs evolved in Ouest France’s strategy?
We still need to improve the relationship between the print paper and the blog. The paper announces what is on the blog. The blog discusses what is in the paper. But we’re still in a very one-way journalistic conception of the Ouest France product, which doesn’t listen to readers sufficiently. The print paper must echo more often the debates of the blog. The newspaper feeds into the blog, now the blog must feed into the newspaper.

Does the blog change the relationship between the newspaper and readers?
It doesn’t change it. It extends an extra pole towards readers. The paper was created as a community service, not a business. Ouest France is part of a non-profit organization and all profits are reinvested within the group. We intensify an already fruitful relationship through the blog – our readers are used to discussing with the paper. Whereas disloyalty seems to be the norm, we notice every day the loyalty of Ouest France readers, with whom we have a strong and trusting relationship.

Will user-generated content take on importance in Ouest France in the future?
Not on the blog. On the Ouest France website, yes. We have used user-generated content, such as vacation pictures and hometown pictures to build photo albums on specific areas. We’re better positioned than anybody to do this because we have 2,600 local correspondents. These are non-professional inhabitants who have contacts and are passionate about their local community. It makes them proud to do that. So we’re used to receiving news and information that isn’t gathered by professionals. We can go even further with our readers.

How does Ouest France view reader interactivity?
Like I said, we have a strong relationship with our readers. We used to receive some 6,000 letters on the subject of orientation in school. So a few years ago, we decided to set up a call center, in partnership with school orientation specialists, with 20 people to answer the phone. Between nine and noon, we answered 4,000 calls and the call center overflowed with calls (we estimated total incoming calls at 40,000). So the year afterwards we had twice as many staffers answer 7,000 phone calls, but there were some 80,000 calls that weren’t processed. We decided to stop, because this operation ended up in more dissatisfaction than interactivity.

Are regionals, or Ouest France, better positioned than nationals to develop a relationship with their readers?
Much better. Most of our news is provided by non-professionals. The news is provided by local correspondents and readers who are engaged in their social life. Of course there’s also news gathered by professional journalists, and we need journalists to coordinate our local correspondents.

Do you have a final word about blogs and your paper?
What I really feel is how profoundly readers are attached to the newspaper. At a time when people doubt whether newspapers are perennial, the tools we use to communicate with the public are encouraging further insight and reflection, and newspapers are even more indispensable. I disagree with the view that the evolution of digital is threatening newspapers and journalism.

Source: Ouest France blog – Didier Pillet, Director of Information