I had dinner last night with some people that blog as part of their job description. I'm not sure what percentage of people in the world can claim to be part of that group, but I think it's still pretty small. It was incredibly interesting to hear about how blogging ties directly into a person's career. I was just listening most of the time, but here are some highlights of the discussion: "Blogging is a kind of journalism" "Do (some) news organizations force people to have blogs?" "Does anyone actually read my blog?" "How does one decide what should be a blog post, and what should be a full blown story?" "NDAs, blogging and journalism" "Spellchecker?" It makes me imagine what things were like when television first came onto the scene, and journalists had to figure out how their existing print/radio careers made sense. I think blogging is interesting to mainstream journalism because it allows journalists to have a more personal voice. If I think of myself as a consumer of media, I generally care more about the news source and less about the actual author. As blogging has become more popular I have found myself learning more first and last names, and coming to recognize a coherent body of work from a single person.