I read in The Week this week about a new study of blogging that shows it’s growing by leaps and bounds. Naturally, Editory & Publisher magazine hopped up to criticize the excitement about the trend immediately. And why shouldn’t they? Blogging is a serious threat to their business interests.
Not that I am either an avid blogger or an avid blog reader, but I find it so exhausting when the establishment pooh-poohs knew things.What are folks saying? “You can’t trust the content.” “Blogs are inconsistent.” “There are no standards.”
You know, when something new comes along, the form takes some time to find itself and figure out a way and a culture that will regulate itself. Not that newspapers are exactly bastions of truth these days (everyone heard about the New York Times reporter that was working for The Manhattan Project to put a positive spin on The Bomb, right? He won a Pulitzer), but in their early days they were completely out of control. Editors were there to come up with more compelling news when the truth wasn’t interesting enough.
Anyway, over time, some standards developed and the form evolved and you can have more faith in it now. These things take time. It’s so annoying when the Establishment criticizes upstarts saying, “You should be as good and sophisticated as us right now or you never will be and you suck!”
Step off.
Blogs are going to get very, very interesting over the next decade. Folks are going to find some great ways to organize them and help people find the right one and each other.
From Philadelphia,
BradyDale
