B2 Brussels2 The Blog

Political and defence Europe (by Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

B2's life

B2's results in 2016... and projects for 2017

(B2) We want to thank you for your daily reading. At the end of 2, B2016 exceeded the mark of 10.000 articles published in its two editions (Blog and Pro) for eight years. The pace of production has not slowed down since 1143 articles (to be exact) have been published. Or 3 to 4 articles published per day (6 days a week). This is without counting the updates which are far from negligible: around a quarter of the articles result in at least one update!

The two editions now have an independent life. The distribution is now stable. A third of the articles are published on the Blog (372) and two thirds on the Pro (771). No item is common. And each edition now has its own style: operational, reports, editorials and current analyzes on the Blog; news monitoring, full verbatim reports, interviews, confidential information, decryptions, analyzes of case law or legislation, memo sheets on the Pro.

The density of external crises as well as the rise of internal threats, and the fusion of these two terrains (internal or external) has, however, created a real challenge for B2: How to deal with so many subjects? How to process everything without risking saturation? Which information is most useful? How deep do you go into information? We therefore sought to innovate, by developing alternative content to our analysis or news articles, and to our exclusives.

Le License which now appears twice a week has thus become a monitoring instrument for all the news that cannot be absorbed otherwise, in order to avoid being in the dilemma of not processing or of processing too quickly. 104 “Carnets” were thus published.

Our DOSSIERS news — which allow you to quickly get around a subject with a chronological approach — have become thicker and more diversified. At the end of 2016, we reached No. 47 (A new impetus for European Defence. Special Summit December 2016) with 17 more files, i.e. 1 or 2 on a monthly basis. Which is a good pace, all the more sustained as it is necessary to update the files already launched.

The effort in 2016 was notable on the Quezako which doubled in thickness. There are now 154 memo sheets, 73 more than in 2014. Some are “fairly simple”, others more developed. The oldest ones have also been updated. The update record is held by the “Ukraine – Russia” sanctions sheet, which is now in its 15th version. This allows us to be more or less complete on the entire field of the CFSP and the CSDP: from the history to the missions on the ground, including the institutions or the different instruments.

And for 2017? There will be no shortage of news. It's sure and certain. We are going to go back into the field to bring back feedback and mission experiences. Reporting, real life. We will continue to be sassy, ​​if necessary, and contrarian, if necessary. Editorials and analyses. And we have a little surprise in store for you… of a new kind, a little more paper than web. Patience !

Do not hesitate to share your opinion with us. It is very precious to us. And thank you again for your increasing presence on the Pro as well as on the Blog.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

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Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).