My Point, and I Do Have One
The sober, important side of last night’s post about blog production rates is that we’ve reached a point where, if you believe people are supposed to work for a living during the day, any one of several blogs could fill your entire available reading time. This would be a problem because of that old internet bugbear of leaving you with a limited perspective on the world, except that, clearly, hardly anyone is really going to read just one blog are they? So people will skim you or start skipping posts, and down the line one would expect to see people reading any given blogger less and less often – they “overcorrect†toward not reading you at all. And suddenly professional blogging is less useful to publishers because it’s not bringing the traffic and people start getting laid off.
This worries me because – announcement coming! – I’ve completed a deal to be Hotair.com’s new “liberal blogger†beginning next week. I’ve really enjoyed negotiating with Michelle and Allahpundit and I’m excited about the chance to reach a new audience. (For the record, they made complete editorial independence a bedrock promise from the beginning of negotiations last November.) I’m eager to begin engaging Hotair’s peerless battalion of commenters and maybe bring some new voices to the mix. I’m especially eager to start cashing the checks. It will be fun to bring a somewhat different perspective on the Hussein Obama administration than maybe the site is used to.(In these tough times, I don’t believe we can afford for even a foreign-born “president†to “fail.â€) I’d just hate for the whole gravy train to go off the rails before I even get to the snack car.
Postscript: Yes, the ban is over.
PS: Just in case there remains any doubt (as of 4/2/2009), the passage re the Hotair gig was an April Fool's joke.
Comment by Derek Copold —
April 1, 2009 @ 9:03 am
Congratulations and good luck.
You’ll need it.
Comment by fester —
April 1, 2009 @ 9:08 am
Jim — congratulations, and I am trying to figure out where on the American political taxonomy you qualify as a “liberal” as we define that word today — I could see that label aptly apply to you pre-Teddy Rooselvelt, but by the 1930s, the liberal-liberterian(ish) alliance had redefined itself in signiifcant ways… so I congratulate you on getting a pretty cool gig but scratching my head as to the labelling — maybe a better description would be non-movement conservative principled liberterian who actually follows through on professed beliefs as a better label, but still that is an ugly acronym (nmcplwaftopb) sounds like Klingon to me…
Congrats!
Comment by adam s —
April 1, 2009 @ 9:26 am
April Fools.
Comment by Dr. Kenneth Noisewater —
April 1, 2009 @ 9:45 am
Okay, you got me… right up until I realized that the “Michelle” of hotair.com was Malkin.
Comment by SomeCallMeTim —
April 1, 2009 @ 9:52 am
You got me, you miserable bastard.
Comment by fester —
April 1, 2009 @ 10:28 am
Damn it, I am slow today — do not comment before my second cup of coffee….
Comment by mds —
April 1, 2009 @ 10:34 am
I was willing to play along until this, when I starting laughing too hard.
Comment by adam s —
April 1, 2009 @ 10:41 am
you could see him setting it up in his previous post. “professional blog reader.” ?!?!
ha!
Comment by joe from Lowell —
April 1, 2009 @ 10:50 am
I’ve really enjoyed negotiating with Michelle and Allahpundit
Lol! Nice one.
Comment by Derek Copold —
April 1, 2009 @ 10:59 am
D’oh!!
Hook, line and sinker.
Comment by ricardo —
April 1, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
Just in time, as I understand that Malkin has accepted a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. . .something to do with detention camps.
Comment by Mrs. O —
April 1, 2009 @ 8:58 pm
Listen, people, he got me too and I live with him. Pathetic or what? I guess I should read his blogroll more often…
Comment by Nell —
April 1, 2009 @ 10:59 pm
Once burned, forever shy. I fell for a JH April Fools fake reversal on the Iraq war several years ago. Hard.
Mrs. O. and the other company today make me feel better. Hey, Jim, a talent that should clearly be able to be remunerated somehow…
Comment by Gary Farber —
April 2, 2009 @ 12:35 am
Boy, I didn’t believe this one for a microsecond.
Comment by Eric Martin —
April 2, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
I fell for it like a rube.