Americans aren't all agog for blogs By Brett Arends Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - Updated: 06:10 PM EST
To hear some folks tell it, the insomniac army of bloggers is already inheriting the Earth.
Clad in pajamas and armed only with Pringles, cocoa and a keyboard, they sway millions and make the mighty tremble as they tap away into the night.
The only problem: it isn't quite true.
Cambridge-based Forrester Research reported yesterday that fewer than 2 percent of Americans who go online read blogs once a week or more.
Even among tech-savvy pioneers - those with laptops and WiFi networks in their homes - just 4 percent say they read blogs.
The surprising figures were uncovered after an exhaustive survey of 68,664 households.
``All that press coverage of the blogs, and the audience is just minuscule,'' noted Forrester Vice President Ted Schadler.
Of course, the numbers don't tell the whole story.
Herald reporter Jay Fitzgerald, author of Hub Blog and the Herald's Econoblog, notes: ``The New Republic, the National Review, the Nation and other political magazines have enormous influence, but their combined circulation doesn't come close to the readership of the top blogs.''
Still, Forrester's findings suggest the ``blogosphere'' phenomenon has enjoyed some over-hyping.
Blog readership looks paltry against the 70 percent of Americans who watch ABC, 65 percent who read their local paper - or even the 18 percent who watch Home & Garden's HGTV.
Strip out the few dozen influential blogs and most of the estimated 5 million U.S. blogs probably enjoy very few readers.
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