Why So Few German Bloggers?

Felix asks the question (which could apply equally to many other large, developed countries) and mainly answers it with cultural explanations. But of his reasons, I think this one gets closest to the mark:

In the US, where the econoblogosphere is at its liveliest, we've now reached the point at which a majority of policymakers, at least on the economics side of things, are paying attention to what the blogosphere is saying. Take someone as self-assured and important as Larry Summers, the most important economist in the Obama administration. He's a big reader of blogs, and not just those by big-name technocrats: he also reads blogs written by people who would never normally have any voice in the government. That kind of respect for the voice of the people is fundamentally American, and is not particularly German.

I don't think American-ness is as important as the underlying fundamentals of the market for blogs. The econoblogosphere, like other networks, is subject to tipping points. At some point, enough people become involved such that not being involved is costly. The result is a deep and diverse pool of economics and finance blogs in America, which quickly rewards new and talented entrants with links and discussion -- the currency of the world of blogs. A new finance blogger enters a medium where thousands of writers are looking for any new and interesting take on developments in the financial world. Provide that audience with an interesting take, and they'll seize on it; gratification is instant.

In an underdeveloped niche, of which "German economics blogging" is one, the situation is different. There are few people writing about Germany, and so there are few people looking for new takes on specifically German issues. Certainly, a quality German blogger will write some things that are of broader interest, which are likely to be picked up by writers elsewhere. But blogging communities are surprisingly insular -- econ blogs link econ blogs, finance blogs link finance blogs, real estate blogs link real estate blogs, and so on. The German niche hasn't reached a critical mass, and so a good German blogger can labor away producing excellent posts that will largely go unappreciated by the underdeveloped market. There's not the easy return to blogging, nor the sense that one is missing out by not participating in the discussion.

What's required is a bit of German blogging stimulus. An institution analogous to George Mason could see an opportunity to punch above its institutional weight by being first to blog market in a big way, thus providing the kernel around which to build a community. Reuters could perhaps play a role, subsidizing the creation of an artificial community, around which organic bloggers would gather (seeding, in effect). Or the German blogosphere could be boosted by an event that focused international attention on the country. The temporary boost in audience could generate a self-sustaining community which would persist after the crisis (or whatever) ebbed.

Here's the interesting question -- should niche blog communities be subsidized? If one thinks a fully developed blog community provides a valuable public good, then perhaps so. In some cases, opportunistic institutions (George Mason, Reuters) will see themselves gaining from doing the subsidization themselves, but that might not be true in all cases. It would be interesting if national governments or industry groups began seeding blog communities, so that they might later take advantage of a valuable free resource -- an ongoing policy discussion staffed mostly by volunteers, providing near instantaneous feedback and analysis of current events.