Journalists can't be bothered reading blogs

Four out of five Danish journalists feel reading blogs is irrelevant to their work, according to a survey by media intelligence company Cision (via Mediawatch.dk).

Hardly any news journalists felt blogs were worth the hassle, but half of the survey's respondents did believe blogs would come to play an important role in the Danish media landscape in the future.

Well, their loss. In fact, had they bothered reading blogs, they could have had this little piece of inside information all for free: "The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed" (hat tip: William Gibson)

I know how fast the world of a news journalist swirls, and, yes, blogs are more useful to specialist reporters, but I can't even begin to tell you in how many ways blogging and reading blogs has been useful to me as a journalist. Perhaps even made me a better journalist.

Friends urged me to start blogging as early as 2001, but back then I felt there was no way I could find time: I was too busy chasing work, chasing deadlines. I regret that now, but am glad I finally got going when I did. The only hitch: it's addictive. I mean, journalism is fun, but blogging is even more fun. And when you first get hooked on the speed with which online conversations expand and move on, writing op-eds for print can be, well, exasperating...