The Cost of Blogging

Andrew Sullivan, who was blogging before blogging was cool, announces that he's giving up the Daily Dish--for reasons I completely understand:

Much as I would like to do everything, I've been unable to give the blog my full attention and make any progress on a book (and I'm two years behind). It's not so much the time as the mindset. The ability to keep on top of almost everything on a daily and hourly basis just isn't compatible with the time and space to mull over some difficult issues in a leisurely and deliberate manner. Others might be able to do it. But I've tried and failed.

Even the few brilliant scholars (Tyler Cowen, Eugene Volokh, Grant McCracken) who make blogging seem like it should foster serious thought limit their posting to topics they want to mull over in public. Current-affairs blogging of the Sullivan/Instapundit/name your favorite type is inherently quick, dirty, and disposable. It may add to the public discourse, but it doesn't tend to deepen the blogger's own thinking. That, plus sheer laziness, is why this blog has never promised more than a few posts a week, and why I've given up my think-magazine-editor instincts to voice an opinion on everything. For a full-blown argument, I want to write something for a sizable audience and get paid. And I don't really want to post half-baked ones.

Right now, I'm researching a couple of long-term projects--one on variety and one on glamour--and (barely) financing the research, which involves some travel and reporting, with article assigments. Blogging will be quite light through February.

UPDATE: Austin Bay, who's recently added blogging to his writing portfolio, has some further thoughts. And speaking of professional writers who've recently become bloggers, check out my old friend and WaPost writer Joel Achenbach's Achenblog. Be sure to scroll down to read his advice for aspiring journalists, with a priceless anecdote about Orrin Hatch.

The Cost of Blogging

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