VNU last week announced the launch of a licensing partnership with blog publisher Gawker Media. The companies have agreed to publish the gadget, gizmo, and consumer electronics-related Gizmodo.com blog across Europe. VNU will provide local presence, its network of bloggers, and knowledge of the local market players in Europe. Gawker Media will provides the daily content, an already significant European reader base, and an established brand.

Gizmodo content will be translated from English into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian and augmented with local coverage.

Dominique Busso, CEO of VNU Net, is quoted as saying that "this partnership with Gawker Media will help us accelerate our efforts in the blog publishing business area. We have…completed various deals that put VNU in the position to be a cutting edge player in the Web 2.0 market, and this deal, attached with our RSS Reader and Reader Expert Blogs initiatives, will help us to embrace this new bottom-up user generated world of publishing."