The community of sports bloggers, has been blogging -- an increasingly accepted information medium -- for years. Some longer. I've been at it, with the Bengals, Politics and general NFL stuff, for over 10 years now. And for years, newspapers, television and mogul mainstream media stuck their nose in the air with the "unedercited make beleaf amater keybored runts". It's alright, really.
It's a trend that most people enjoy, except for the medium that loses out on eventual advertising dollars. The Washington Post published, in 2005, that within a six month period, there was a 1.9% drop in circulation among "814 of the nation's largest daily newspapers". In 2006, the New York Times reported, "Over all, average daily circulation dropped by 2.8 percent during the six-month period ended Sept. 30, compared with the period last year, according to an industry analysis of data released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Circulation for Sunday papers fell by 3.4 percent." The same study, two years later, reports: "Newspapers across the US reported drops in weekday and Sunday circulation of 2.1% and 3.1%, respectively, in the six-month period ending March 31".
Obviously, it's not just the blogs. You can attach the decline to general Internet news sites, 24-hour cable news channels and the suffocation of telemarketing having strict, government imposed, rules. But during this stretch, we've seen many newspaper companies take their publications to the Internet. Some have gone one further and added blogs to their sites. The nature of evolution is taking hold here... my brothers.
Dare I say, blogs are becoming mainstream?
ESPN kicked off Hashmarks -- an NFL blog penned by Matt Mosley. Mosley is a supporter of sports blogging. In his links section, he lists three SB Nation blogs - Windy "Six-peat" City Gridiron, Blogging the Boys and Pats Pulpit. But here's the thing. Blog are meant as journals; thoughts written out online. Not abbreviated articles -- though even I do that from time to time. And I must confess, ESPN hasn't always been the leaders of tradition. So we'll see... but so far, so good, Mosley.