Blogging, Overhyped? That's Unpossible!

The British Market Research Bureau has completed a quarterly study of blogs in that country, and their findings should be humbling.

… there has been no significant change in the number of people who publish blogs, which remains at just 2% of UK internet users. Furthermore, only 10%—around 2.8 million people—of internet users view a weblog once a month or more.

"There has been disproportionate coverage of blogging, still only a minority ever read blogs and a tiny proportion publish them," said [Senior Associate Director Trevor] Vagg. "This suggests there is an over-hyping about how big the idea of people's journalism is through using technology like camera phones and weblogs."

Vagg points out one loophole—they might not be widely read by non-journalists, but because journalists read them, blogs end up having a wide influence on culture and public debate.

If you missed it, this would be a good time to read former Reason editor Matt Welch's excellent farewell to warblogging.