Information Society Watch

January 7, 2008, Dan Fost, New York Times

This article explores how running a blog as a business creates huge pressures as bloggers who must simultaneously act as C.E.O., keep abreast of and report on breaking news, and do all of it on a budget. The article focuses on the ailments of Om Malik, the creator of the blog GigaOm that breaks technology industry news. In one entry, Mr. Malik reported that he had suffered a heart attack at the age of 41, one year after his personal blog GigaOm received the venture capital backing to become a 12-employee business that also runs several other websites. Mr. Malik's heart attack -- and subsequent blogging of it -- may not be directly caused by the stresses of his job as a professional blogger, but it certainly does raise concerns about the repercussions of professional blogging.

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