Previously people used to declare blogging dead, but I’m now noticing a not so subtle shift where people talk like it’s already been dead for a while. I think this is actually true in a sense...
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...new blogs are very hard to establish now and the core of new outlet formation has shifted to other media (podcasts, video, twitch, email newsletters, Twitter, instagram...)...
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...old established blogs have either “matured” into magazine like outlets, turned into vertically integrated community businesses with events/closed forums, or entered an “elder blog” phase like ribbonfarm...
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The challenge for the magazine-blogs is the same as old media: sustainable business.
For the vertically integrated blogs, it’s a harvesting endgame while individuals try to reach financial escape velocity and turn into lifestyle businesses.
Both want to become non-blog-like
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Elder blogs are different in that they want any reinvention of themselves to retain a certain blogs essence. A conversational-stream memeplex elan vital.
The ones that succeed will be exemplars of “the blog is dead, long live the blog!” resurrection/regeneration
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The ones that fail or don’t try will age into digital museums of varying levels of archival quality/decrepitude depending on preservation investment as underlying tech ages.
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Aside: I don’t consider company blogs, product blogs or disciplinary academic blogs to be true blogs, since they are dependent on, and ancillary to, other primary activities that sustain them
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Nah that happened like 8-9 years ago and wasn’t the death knell. In fact the peak flourishing came right after. It was more recent factors.
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I think medium in particular has coopted many who would have otherwise started blogging, as it captures much of the same value from individual long-form posts. Definitely loses features compared to a standalone independent blog
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On the other hand, "blog posts" are a respected unit of production for various research organizations. "I produced 3 blog posts on X topic while working there" is a reasonable thing to say in some contexts.



