I grew up reading newspapers, and I still cruise through several on a regular basis. I have never been interested in the columnists, though, and I just figured that was my own idiosyncrasy (which it may still be).
I now have a competing explanation: Most newspaper columns are not that good. Having started a blog, which has similarities to writing a newspaper column--regular short essays on a variety of topics, I have come to realize how very difficult this is to do on a regular basis.
More than a few times I have looked at the "new post" page of Blogger and said "be more interesting." (Like Homer Simpson telling his television to be "more funny")
Ann Althouse recently got a gig as a guest columnist for the New York Times, which makes a lot of sense. She brings with her a proven track record of strong writing as well as many regular readers. (To illustrate, when she wrote about one of my posts, my traffic increased by an order of magnitude for several days). I would imagine that in the coming years, newspapers and magazines will routinely turn to successful bloggers for columnists. Blogging is a proving ground for essay-writing in which anyone can participate. This makes blogging like the American Idol for essayists--many sign up at the auditions and a few make it to the big-time, and those few are arguably the most talented.
This makes me wonder how current newspaper columnists would do if they had to start up on their own with a blog.
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4 comments:
Luckily, Simon Cowell can't eliminate from Blogger for being "prefectly ghastly" and even if no one votes for us, we can still keep right on publishing!
That's true... and I am thankful for it!
Oh my gosh, the idea that it might be a competition would totally stop me from writing. I think people blog for different reasons. For me, it started out as 100% therapy. It saves me so much money. :-)
I try to keep it like that because the moment I start writing for somebody else, rather than just expressing my own truth or need to rant, the crappier anything I write becomes.
What's funny is this is the first season I've ever watched any of American Idol. The two episodes I saw were actually a lot of fun. I was really surprised at my reaction, being a snobby musician and all. (If it's not rock, it's crap!!) I actually found Simon to be kind of refreshing.
I've heard that AI is very addictive... I haven't really watched it.
I don't know if blogging is a competition, but it does separate the wheat from the chafe in terms of readability, whether the blogs be person expression or political discourse.
BTW, you're one of the few blogs who can do *interesting* therapy-writing.
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