Two Dutch entrepreneurs in their late twenties who are more comfortable wearing hoodies than formal suits have succeeded in achieving something in Germany where even reputable media organizations have failed. They have set up an online kiosk, which sells articles from magazines, national daily newspapers as well as the regional press, including “Der Spiegel”, “FAZ” and “Bild am Sonntag”. The two entrepreneurs are Marten Blankesteijn and Alexander Klöpping, founders of the start-up Blendle, which launched in Germany in mid-September. The important thing about their new online kiosk is that readers purchase a single article rather than full newspaper or magazine editions. Publishers set their own prices for articles that cost from one cent for a short notice in a regional newspaper and 1.99 Euros for a headline story in “Der Spiegel”.

The American doctor William Davis wouldn’t touch bread, biscuits or pizza with a barge pole: his mantra is that wheat is unhealthy and makes you fat. Davis’s message resonates in Germany: this February, no other work of non-fiction attracted so much excitement and debate among web users here as his book “Wheat Belly”. In the category for fiction Arno Strobel’s thriller “Das Dorf” (“The Village”) provoked heated discussions on the web.