Let’s gore a sacred cow. Or let’s let Frank Barnako of CBS MarketWatch’s Internet Daily do it. The headline above tops the commentary leading his report on Wednesday.
“No one reads blogs,” Barnako writes. Yes, Technorati is tracking 4 million blogs, RSS is no longer “a geek secret and now it’s a bolt-on to My Yahoo!”, and Blogads claims to be delivering 100 million banner-ad impression per month. “All that may be true. It’s just that after the presidential election, it appears to me that the only readers of blogs … are bloggers! They are a good group. Educated and engaged. But they’re also like mice in a rotating cage: running in place, bumping into the same old people.” Examining Comscore’s online traffic surveys, Barnako notes that “when the most popular political blog draws fewer than 270,000 visitors on Election Day, you’ve got to ask, ‘What’s the point?'”
Those are fighting words to blogger fundamentalists and might cause some a knee-jerk reaction to accuse Barnako of “not getting it” or perhaps of being a “big-media” guy simply because of the brand CBS behind his column. But Barnako gets it and has been for a long time. He’s a blogger, a Web-publishing pioneer (who helped found USAToday.com and helped found Quincy Jones‘ World Music Web venture), and has been reporting for the CBS News radio network about online since before the Internet was opened to the public.
Barnako concludes, “Bottom line: Political blogging is like Ralph Nader. Nobody pays attention.”
Uncategorized
Bloggers Blew It: Much Posting, Little Impact
Tags: E-Media Tidbits, WTSP
More News
At the nonprofit Salt Lake Tribune, a turnaround and now a big gamble
The Tribune’s success has made it a poster child for going nonprofit. Will its attempts to shake off its paywall find similar success?
May 28, 2025
Poynter launches new era of leadership development, names 25 journalists to reimagined academy
These experienced managers and leaders join an updated flagship leadership program tailored to today's evolving newsroom demands
May 28, 2025
Opinion | Trump targeted public media. Now NPR is taking him to court
A coalition of public radio stations says the president’s order to cut funding is unconstitutional retaliation and a threat to press freedom
May 28, 2025
One Washington wants to eliminate the press. The other Washington wants to save it.
A new report shows a fragile local news ecosystem in Washington — and a rare example of lawmakers working to protect it
May 28, 2025
A UN official misstated Gaza’s starvation risk. The number was real, but the timeline wasn’t
An urgent warning about 14,000 starving children spread fast — but it was based on an 11-month projection, not 48 hours
May 28, 2025