After looking over some of the old posts I just mentioned in the last post, I thought it would be interesting to bring you an update of our first news post. It was July of 2005 and we reported to you about the prevalence of blogs in the online world. See that post here.

At that time 27 percent of internet users read blogs, and only 38 percent of internet users even knew what a blog was. A recent study concluded in April of 2006 shows that the Blogosphere has grown since then. Now it is reported that 39 percent of internet users read blogs, and 8 percent have their own blog. That is a respectable growth rate in the size and scope of the blogosphere. Here’s some more info from the study concerning the topics of all these blogs.

Among the report”s findings was that while many well-known blogs are political in nature, 37 percent of bloggers use them as personal journals. Among other popular topics were politics and government (11 percent), entertainment (7 percent), sports (6 percent) and general news and current events (5 percent). Only 34 percent of bloggers considered blogging a form of journalism, and most were heavy Internet users.

Another interesting quote from the article is this.

Mr. Anderson, the author of the book “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More” (Hyperion), said that the Pew report shows how the blogosphere is unlike traditional media. “It”s narrow, niche subjects,” he said. “It”s a granularity of media that we in the commercial media could not scale down to. Niche media is “me” media, and the blogosphere is the ultimate manifestation of that.”

We’ve known all along that bluegrass was a niche market, and blogging about bluegrass even more so. We do consider The Bluegrass Blog to be journalism, but we also think it should involve you. As we head into our second year of blogging we are preparing to launch some new features that will allow you to participate and become part of the experience. Stay tuned in, we’ll be telling you more about the new features very soon.