Blog Readership Bogged Down

Blog Readership Bogged Down via Gallup

An interesting read, however, I think it entirely misses the mark on a couple of important fronts.

The audience for Web logs, or "blogs" had an auspicious start, going from practically zero to almost 20 in a very short time frame (20 being the percentage of Americans today who report reading blogs on at least an occasional basis). However, according to recent Gallup data, it seems the growth in the number of U.S. blog readers was somewhere between nil and negative in the past year.

Blogging became big through politics during the last Presidential election. It's almost as if it were a new technology employed in combat, only in a purely political context. Let's not forget that with politics dominating blogging up until now, there wasn't an election year spurt during the time the survey was conducted.

There is an election cycle coming up and a Presidential race two years on. When the population as a whole begins to shift focus back to politics, look for long time political bloggers to benefit from a traffic increase.

And as we've seen before, technology takes time to trickle out through the greater population after it gets its start in some particular field - in this case, politics.

Consequently, I wouldn't be surprised if a good survey revealed that, just as with my blogging on crime, bloggers concentrating on areas outside of politics may well be picking up readers. I know a great many of mine were first time blog readers when they started following the Holloway story here and many have elected to hang around. TTLB supports the thesis as gadget and gossip blogs have continued to grow.

Look at what Pajamas Media is doing in launching a Hollywood-based blog, sports-based area and now an Olympic blog. For the time being, the greatest growth is likely to be in areas other than politics.

I'd suggest to both blog authors and readers not to worry a bit about this latest survey. Anyone who thinks the great boom of blogging is done, is simply wrong. I doubt we've even begun to see its real growth as old print media and the electronic MSM move more and more to the Internet, people's information gathering habits are continually changing and new and alternative forms of information offering real interaction will continue to be in big demand.

Comments

[afmomx3]

That's great Dan....
that is of course of all your new readers...
yes I am one of those who never blogged before, BUT I AM NOT SO STUPID AS THOSE SURVEYS TALK ABOUT!!!
we came here to your site because it's intellect vs news coverage;, and our ability on your site to be able to shift thru the sh%& they (msm) want us to believe !!!...

Dan, your site is one of the few left standing thru all this crime stuff...
you preserve your facts and we are very grateful because most always crash or go down for some STRANGE reason...

keep up the great work Dan...
will always be here to read everything and post when i feel like i can contribute or ask a valid question that might tweak someones mind to help in any way possible...
there are lots of people all over the world that have become loyal readers for your intellect Dan...I for one appreciate all that you go thru to be able to bring us the latest in the world...
as i said before, I will always check in to read what "Dan the man" has posted !!!LOL
GOOD LUCK TO YOU, DAN!!!

as always, I am
respectfully,
afmomx3

[Steel]

Here's an analogy ...

Remember when you got that envelope with ALL those magazine offers? So many choice. So you order a dozen different mags and then in about 3 months, many of them become 'junk mail'. You don't really read them anymore. BUT, there's always a few that you read front to back, that you look forward to getting each month.

Now people have decided which 'mags' they actually read and enjoy and stay with 'em.

I agree about the political angle. Once things heat up again, people will avail themselves of more than their usual daily reads.

I can't wait.

[don surber]

Just go to memeorandum sometime and you'll see why. I can go to Drudge and predict who will say what.
The least read page in the paper is the Editorial page. Oh, everyone looks at the cartoon (which is why the Dutch cartoons are no joke -- although they ran in the features section)

[don surber]

(continued) People want to be shown something new. Poly Blogs tell. Which is why they attract so many professors and other lecturers