Flogging while blogging: Recombu tries something slightly different

recombu“I’m a mobile phone expert,” writes Andrew Lim humbly, as he explains the concept behind his new venture with Jamie Harwood. Recombu is part fresh idea, part Shiny Media remnants (Susi Weaser, wannabe “Queen of London” and erstwhile editrix of Shiny Shiny, is on board as a freelance, as is TechDigest’s former editor, Stuart Dredge). But it’s not just his own considerable expertise that Lim is relying on:

Recombu is a portmanteau of the words read, compare and buy, and our site aims to help you with all three. We have a fantastic editorial team who will provide news and reviews, but the site is also designed to let users write their own opinions and to discuss phones too.

So the site is a mash-up of user reviews, price comparisons, recommendations and editorial content. It’s not the kind of tech company we’d normally cover, but it’s interesting if you’re into that whole ‘future of journalism’ debate, because it represents one of the new models of ‘flogging while blogging’: some content will come from staff and some from customers, but everything exists in the context of a site that basically exists to sell mobile phones.

Recombu isn’t the first company to try something like this, but it has launched with a strong team and an attractive website. Over the next few weeks, we’ll discover if the editorial content does it justice. The company is launching at a tough time. Let’s just hope that they go easy on the £80-a-sheet wallpaper.