01.03.2017 07:41 AM

3.5 million folks say this National Post guy is totally full of crap

Check out this whopper:

No one thing killed blogging in Canada. Twitter played a role. Much of the old blogosphere energy now gets expended on Tweets. The structure of the Internet changed, too. Between maybe 2003 and 2009, when blogging was huge, the Internet was more about websites. Today it’s all about platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

Blogging still exists. Many of the biggest names from that era endure. Some — Jaime Weinman, Colby Cosh, Chris Selley — migrated into the old media world. Others, like Dan “Calgary Grit” Arnold, became players in the real political sphere (Arnold is director of research and advertising for the Liberal Party of Canada). But blogging itself no longer enjoys the dominance it once had.

The full steaming pile is here. And what a load of bollocks it is. I’m not going to cite a single statistic or fact, sayeth he, I’m not going to do any actual research. I’m just going to say “blogging is dead.” And it will be therefore true. 

Except, you know, it isn’t.  It just isn’t true.  My pal Raymi the Minx has been at it for almost two decades, and hasn’t let up. So too Big City Lib, for years. Jordon Cooper out West. Scott Tribe. Anti-Racist Canada. Torontoist, Daily Kos down South, and on and on. All have substantial audiences. All are on the blogroll, just to the left, Post guy.

Oh: and the words you now squint at, on a bluish screen somewhere? The ones found on this Non-Blog? They’re seen by three and a half million people a year. How’s that factoid, Post fellow? That’s more people than read many of your columnists, I’d wager. And this little project – now in its 17th year – makes a not-insubstantial amount of dough, too. It’s a media platform that is pretty profitable, unlike…well, you know.

But forget about all that. Forget about it. Here’s one fact.

A few years ago, a newspaper editor-in-chief came to see me. He said he wanted me to write for his newspaper as a columnist. Why, I asked. “Because we are blown away by the size of your audience,” he said. “It’s more than most of our columnists.”

The name of the newspaper?

The National Post. 

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19 Comments

  1. John says:

    What utter tripe. Typical NP BS. Where the hell do they get this stuff? Random word generator?

    Keep up the good work, Warren et al. It is read and valued.

  2. P. Brenn says:

    fake news .. I thought they were stopping that

  3. Lonny says:

    I guess no one was reading his blog.

  4. dave constable says:

    It is not so much the blog itself that draws people, it is the comments section and the chance for interaction with other players in the ‘Call for Comments’ games online.

  5. MississaugaPeter says:

    Google analytics looks for updated content in its rankings.

    Thus, smart companies update their websites with continuous new content (blogs) to move up in Google Search. A lot cheaper in many cases for small businesses than paying for Google Ads.

  6. doconnor says:

    The deline of blogs has been observered by me and also mentioned by James Bow in his blog.

    You list some old-timers who are still blogging, but where are the new people who have started up?

  7. Kev says:

    This thing you write on the internets is a blog.

  8. Dave says:

    One of the most important aspects of this website and your writing on it is that even though you do have obvious political leanings you don’t shy away from criticizing “your side” and complimenting “their side” when warranted.

  9. rww says:

    However we must be vigilant. Facebook is trying to make the Internet all about it so that all people use the Internet for is to sign into their Facebook accounts. That is probably already true for a significant number of people.

  10. Been writing the DCFP for 11 years now. Readership is steady. Never been in it for the money. If I had not been at it this long I would never have had my traffic from France exceed my readers from both Canada and the States. Worth its weight in gold that is.

  11. Aurelia says:

    Blogging has also taken many different forms over the years.
    The current version I see most often, is a citizen having a main destination website for the his own activities, person, brand. And social media branches off that main website but brings them back to your site to get more, see more, eg. Posts with pictures, and links to your Instagram, your Pinterest, your twitter, your Snapchat, your Youtube, Vines (ok, those are gone, LOL) hell even their Facebook Live broadcast video, gets comments and reactions and replies made as videos, and yes, some long form notes they write can be posted there at their home website to bring them back to see more details, bios, stories. Ads bring in dollars, but so do products, books, speaking engagements, Sponsors who want their ads beside independant editorial content.(way more consumer/business cred than “advertorial”).
    Even better? Social networks created for teenagers, like the pages and groups on the Steam gaming platform or Warframe, allow privacy from parents, and they talk politics all over there, or they talk–about whatever they want.
    Same for private secret Facebook groups, which are kind of the best invention ever for support groups. Yep, it’s alive! Older, but still here.

  12. e.a.f. says:

    In B.C. blogging is alive and well. Its how a lot of us get news because the MSM doesn’t issue much of anything beyond press releases from Christy Clark and the b.c. lieberals.

    We have Laila Yuille; Harvey Oberveld-keeping it real; RossK–Pacific Gazetter; Normal Farrell-In-sight-and boy does he reveal where Christy waste’s our tax dollars; A new one has just been added-Bob Mackin–the Breaker; Blog Borg Collective.

    yes, people tweet, but really how much infro can you impart in 150 characters so something like that. For indepth information, people have to write and that is what bloggers do. Some times, like in B.C., the bloggers are about the only opposition in the province to the b.c. lieberals.

    It was bloggers who revealed Christy Clark’s pay to play soirees which she gets to skim the take of to the tune of $50K per yr. its bloggers who inform us of the goings on with Site C, the waste of money with B.C. Hyrdro and ICBC and how Christy uses them as a cash cow to the turn of 1/2 billion each, each year and raises rates. when christies friends benefit from the b.c. lieberals do we hear or read about it in the MSM/ nO WE read about it on a blog.

    Long may blogs reign., Some of them just spew hate, but a lot of them offer clear facts and relevant information. always a good thing when the MSM is more interested in their profit margin than the truth.

  13. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    Sometimes the blog serves as therapy for me. Other times, for others.

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