U.S. News and World Report has an interesting article online from their current issue. While focused mainly on corporate blogs, we felt some of the content might be of interest to the bluegrass community. Here are a couple of excerpts.

While discussing who reads blogs. ~

Only 27 percent of Internet users read blogs (and only 38 percent of Internet users even know what a blog is), according to a 2004 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. But based on comments posted to their blogs, most executive bloggers conclude their audience is a mix of industry insiders–customers, industry analysts, journalists, employees, and competitors.

Taken in context of how quickly the internet disseminates information, I tend to think these numbers might be a little “last year.” The girth of the blogosphere seems to have widened considerably in the last year or two. What they didn’t say in this article is that the same Pew poll found that:

blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users;

This jump occurred between February and November, and comprised 32 million U.S. citizens in 2004. What might it be by the end of 2005?

The last part of that original quote would indicate that blog readership varies greatly. What this means for you and I is that anyone with an interest in bluegrass music will find The Bluegrass Blog to be a valuable resourse.

One of the things we hope to accomplish with The Bluegrass Blog is to create an authoritative source for bluegrass music news and information. Looking once again at the original article I mentioned:

Promoting a new sense of openness–whether with employees, customers, or the public–is one of the most important things that blogs can accomplish in this age of mistrust.

Our hope is that we can all work together as a community to promote this music we love, and we feel that The Bluegrass Blog can become a great asset to the industry.