Madrid, Nov 21 (EFE).— At a time when online consumption appears dominated by audiovisual content—from TikTok and Instagram to YouTube and streaming platforms—“writing is in fashion,” says Alexandre Leforestier, CEO of Panodyssey, a French social network that promotes slow, multi-format content.
Speaking to EFE, Leforestier said that amid today’s online video saturation, “writing is a new trend,” likely, in his view, “because we’re tired of an extravagant algorithm pushing too much content.”
Blogging platforms gain new momentum
Writing and publishing online, he said, means interacting, collecting comments, likes or replies. A new wave of blogging platforms—including Substack, Medium, Wattpad and Panodyssey—has emerged in recent years after a period in which the blogosphere had fallen out of fashion.
Leforestier described Panodyssey as a service designed to create “a quiet web room” for both fiction and nonfiction writing, for amateur and professional authors alike. Each user builds a personal space with a name and description and can publish in different formats, from short posts to longer journalistic pieces.
Digital identity and protection for writers
The CEO noted that six years ago, Panodyssey became the first social network to issue free certificates tied to a real person, helping prevent fake profiles—though “a pseudonym can be used to protect one’s identity if you are a journalist or whistleblower”—while also protecting writers’ publication rights.
To prevent harassment or reputational attacks, the platform relies on moderation and monitoring tools.
>“If someone wants to destroy a person’s reputation online, you must act immediately, without waiting 24 hours, to address the problem or the content in question,” he said.
Business models for online writing platforms
Leforestier, whose company collaborates with EFE on the distribution of this content, said new online writing platforms host two creator models: building a large audience and gaining subscribers, or monetizing content directly.
“You decide whether to publish your content for free or whether you want to get subscribers, and you set and decide the price of your subscription,” he said, calling this “a revolution” for creative-writing enthusiasts and professionals.
Many people, he added, “now accept paying directly to a journalist, a creator, an artist.” EFE