Blogging is Deadly?

The New York Times continues its tradition of groundbreaking journalism by pointing out that workaholics have stressful lives. Not content with that startling revelation they manage to tie the stress that workaholic bloggers face to deadly consequences.

All joking aside, NYT points out some indisputable facts about working at some of the big name blogs:

• a 24/7/365 news cycle
• intense competition where being first with a story is a huge advantage
• long hours and (relatively) low pay for many employees

But lets be clear about what kind of blogging they’re talking about here. This is stuff that applies to big boys like Mashable and TechCrunch with their focus on tech news and multiple writers. There are maybe a couple dozen “blogs” that fit this mold and even famous bloggers like Scoble and John Chow don’t really fit this mold.

Can you even call a site like TechCrunch or Engadget a blog at this point? I don’t really think so. They’re online news organizations that have a much closer resemblance to old fashioned news media than they do to what any of us would call a blog. Even bloggers who seek to make money with their blog don’t really fit this mold - their blogs tend to more personal stories that aren’t really affected by the need to “get it out first” or the demands of producing tons of content on a regular basis.

I don’t mean to diminish the fact that some “blog” employees are working under tough conditions and that stress can be harmful to their health. But I think the reality is that these people chose to do what they do because they’re passionate about the topics they cover and these go-getters would likely end up in a stressful job of another sort if blogging weren’t available to them.