The Blogmakery makes blogs like a bakery makes cakes. Maybe not as tasty, but very crispy. The Blogmakery’s blogs are simple, easy-to-use and come to you in a light, bright and intelligent fashion, specially developed for cultural events, cultural institutions, political conferences, books or even individuals who want to start a blog on something they care about. The Blogmakery offers consultancy and advice on already existing blogs and websites, as well as helping to conceptualise new blogs, manage the entire process of setting it up, fill it with content and monitor it at events. It helps with creating content, both textual and multimedia, and also advises on communication and link strategies.

The Blogmakery is a one-woman company set up by me, Nikola Richter, a writer, journalist and editor, originally from Bremen, Northern Germany, famous for its town musicians and the futuristic drop tower. I have lived in Berlin for ten years now. Having studied German, English and Comparative Studies in Tübingen, Norwich and Berlin and graduated with an M.A. from the Freie Universität Berlin, I combine comprehensive knowledge of the cultural and literary sector with an interest in online media and a broader perspective on political and social issues.

I have written several books, including poetry, short stories and plays as well as a documentary novel about the precarious situation of university graduates. After my training in journalism from 2005 to 2007 at the quarterly KULTURAUSTAUSCH, a magazine for international perspectives published by the Institute for Cultural Foreign Relations (ifa), I continued working there as a part-time sub-editor until February 2008. Most recently, I have worked as a sub-editor for the multi-lingual online European press review euro|topics (March 2008 to March 2009), a project of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education and n-ost, Network for Reporting on Eastern Europe, planning weekly dossiers on European current affairs and other issues debated in the European press.

Since then I have dedicated much of my time to blogging: I was responsible for the conceptualisation, planning and implementation of the Theatertreffen-Blog 2009 (for the annual Berlin theatre festival Theatertreffen tt, Berliner Festspiele) which replaced the established festival newspaper for young journalists. The tt Blog gave online reports on one of the most important German-speaking theatre festivals as well as offering seven up-and-coming arts journalists the opportunity to experience and experiment with new multimedia formats as part of a team. Moreover, I was selected as one of 81 European participants to spent four months blogging on Europe and the European Parliament elections for the European blogging competition Th!ink about it, a project by the European Journalism Centre in the Dutch city of Maastricht and received an “impact award” for my posts. The book “Liebes-Erklärungen” (’Declarations of Love’), co-edited with my sister Franziska Richter and published by Berlin-based Bloomsbury press is also accompanied by a blog. My latest project was the Newplays-Blog for the Theatre Biennial 2010 in Wiesbaden and Mainz.

Finally, I like to share my experience and knowledge: I speak at conferences and also teach a postgraduate seminar at Freie Universität, Berlin, in the autumn term 2009, in the course of which my students and I will set up a faculty blog and visit media outlets in and around Berlin. Together with the writer René Hamann I organise a literary salon at the Kreuzberg Café Johann Rose where we present Berlin-based writers from Germany and all over the world, such as the Irish writer Julian Gough, the English writer Clare Wigfall, the American journalist Nicholas Kulish (New York Times), the Portuguese poet and gardening philosopher Ivo Daniel Carmo or the Iraqi-in-exile Abbas Khider. German guests were, amongst others, Ron Winkler and Paul Brodowsky. By the way, Johann Rose serves the best cakes in town.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any question on planning and conceptualising blogs as well as live and event blogging. I’m happy to help!