Blogging Up the Arteries

Kudos to Kathleen for pointing out this amazing article to me. I'm glad blogging is basically just a hobby for me.

I could make comments about every part of this piece which I found myself laughing at, even when it talked about people developing severe health issues from excessive blogging. What are they thinking? People working themselves to death in the office isn't really anything new, although blogging is. You weren't designed to be on your ass for days on end.

But this part caught my eye:

Mr. Lam said he has worried his blogging staff might be burning out, and he urges them to take breaks, even vacations. But he said they face tremendous pressure — external, internal and financial. He said the evolution of the “pay-per-click” economy has put the emphasis on reader traffic and financial return, not journalism.

Does anyone truly think that in old-fashioned journalism there was no emphasis on financial returns? I'm sure the pace is more insane now. Furthermore, due to hit-counters, it's no longer a likelihoood but a provable fact that no one read your well-researched animal psychology piece which you posted a minute after the Paris Hilton perp walk photos came out. However I think it's absurd to suggest that for this reason blogging is ruining "quality journalism". Journalism is already ruined and "if it bleeds, it leads" is a concept predating the roller mouse. Who is actually reading what is simply more accurate to gauge now, and I prefer the animal psych piece. You just have to find a creative way to fit the words "paris" and "hilton" in there and maybe a picture of animals doing it. Or something.