The current edition of Vanity Fair contains a map of popular “blogs” showing relative “news v opinion” content and “scurrilous” v “earnest” tone. Many of these “blogs” are media properties that have blogs (such as Salon or Slate) or are simply media properties (Pitchfork Media) or organizations that rest on blogging software (Blogcritics, Huffington Post). And then there’s Drudge, which isn’t a blog — no RSS feed, no archived entries … just a bunch of links (mostly).
The blogs I read regularly are in the upper-right-hand quadrant: “news/earnest”. No big surprise, there! In fact, I knew all but two of the blogs labeled “earnest”: Just Jared (a gossip blog on the “earnest” side of the chart?) and Apartment Therapy. But I was familiar with only one (1!) of the “blogs” in the lower-left-hand quadrant (scurrilous + opinion): Perez Hilton (courtesy of a student). [Yes, I know both Pitchfork Media and Blogcritics, where I sometimes, but not very often, syndicate my content. But neither of these are "blogs" although BC at least has RSS feeds. But it calls itself a magazine.]
It is Vanity Fair, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how many are gossip/celebrity sites.
