British political blogs continue to increase and multiply, and since the Election it's been the leftish blogs that have been making the running - enjoying the chance to throw tomatoes rather than dodge them.
So Liberal Conspiracy now heads the monthly list of top political blogs compiled by Wikio, with Left Foot Forward in second place.
Well-established right-of-centre blogs are now fighting for attention against the likes of Labour List and Liberal Democrat Voice.
Among the former, Iain Dale's Diary today (above) announced its own demise, with a valedictory rant which gives an insight into the world of political blogging:
"I hate the backbiting that goes along with it. I hate the character assassination that is permanently present. I no longer enjoy the pressure of feeling I have to churn out four or five pieces every day. I used to enjoy sitting in front of the TV at home in the evenings and writing blog posts at the same time. I can't do that any longer as I am on the radio every weekday evening."
And there's the rub: Dale can now address far more people on London's LBC radio - where he hosts an evening show (thanks to his blogging?) - than he ever could on the blog.
But giving it up may be harder than he realises. By the end of his piece, Dale is talking about still writing the occasional piece, and the bitterness disappears as he ends:
"For the most part, I have enjoyed the blogging experience and made a lot of friends through it. Thank you, and Au revoir. PS I shall still be tweeting HERE."
Another busy sector, for obvious reasons, has been business - with Robert Peston, the BBC's Business Editor, holding sway with his Peston's Picks. It manages to tread a fine line, escaping accusations of too much comment for a BBC editor by well-argued analysis - at lengths that news programmes don't permit (e.g. latest entry: 800 words, or about four and-a-half minutes of voiced script).
For others on Peston's patch, try the high-powered Economists' Forum, run by the FT's Martin Wolf, or the esoteric but intriguing Knowing and Making, a one-man blog by a British software business boss, Leigh Caldwell, about behavioural economics (well, if you read it, you would).
Then there are blogs on the subject of journalism itself:
Paul Bradshaw's Online Journalism Blog presents the musings of the influential Birmingham City University academic (who has contributed to a number of College of Journalism events including this one tomorrow) and a group of associates. As to exactly what his blog is about, Bradshaw endorses this description by fellow blogger Pete Ashton which would probably apply to many blogs:
"If you simply judge [Paul] on his online output it seems incredibly scattershot, linking to anything and everything that comes his way that's connected in someway to online journalism. But Paul is up to something ... What I'm seeing is a swan from beneath. He's gliding calmly towards a destination but I'm watching the frenetic paddling under the surface in close-up."
Also, on journalism, there's the Guardian blog of the well-connected former Mirror editor Roy Greenslade, now an academic at London's City University. And for the US view of all things journalistic, there's the ubiquitous Jeff Jarvis. For a more comprehensive list of the field, Journalism.co.uk's Blog Roll is useful.
2010 is perhaps the year in which, after much talk of blogs as a way for journalists to make some easy money by starting their own little enterprise, the business of blogging came into focus. Established sites consolidated, turning clicks into real cash. On the other side of the equation, the low barriers to entry which had encouraged many to start blogs were raised.
So Gawker Media, founded in New York by former FT journalist Nick Denton, gets 450 million page views a month from 17 million unique users, making a reported $15-20 million per year (£9.5-12.7 million), according to an FT report. The business is also now a serious employer - with a full-time staff of 120. (See our interview with Gawker editor-in-chief Gabriel Snyder here.)
In its report on blogs, the investment site 24/7 Wall St rates Gawker the most valuable blogging business in the States, worth a cool $240 million. The Huffington Post comes second at $150 million.
If the newly corporate feel of these expanding blog empires seems a long way from the journalist-blogger's dream of editorial and financial independence, perhaps the offbeat success of Perez Hilton can still inspire.
Hilton's showbiz gossip blog empire is rated seventh-most valuable by 24/7, worth an estimated $32 million. The eponymous founder is a Cuban-American with a background on a gossip tabloid. Only six years ago he declared personal bankrupcy.
Now his site has an estimated monthly income of $400,000, and claims 11 million monthly page views in the UK alone. His potential fortune may be built on gossip about soap stars and minor celebs, but there is something mythic about Hilton's success as he explained it to the FT:
"My parents both fled Cuba - they left communism and an oppressive regime to come to this country to try to achieve their American dream. And I've been able to achieve it for them in a huge way."
There are two kinds of blogs: ones you look at because of you suspect everyone else is, and ones you stay in touch with because you've got into the habit - like old friends you can't remember how you first met. In that category, for me, are the following (but they're just my old friends, and you may not like them):
Michael Wolff's Newser - a US news service started by a man who straddles old and new media with this in-your-face news aggregator.
Bill Gates' Gates Notes - a surprisingly informative insight into the great man's thinking, helpfully divided into his various interests, with tips about books he's been impressed by, and other enthusiasms and anxieties.
Thomas Friedman - New York Times columnist with a passion for the politics and science of environmentalism. See his still relevant Hot, Flat and Crowded (2008).
Finally, if none of the above impresses, I leave you with a wonderfully rich vein of new blogs for 2010 picked by the editors of The Bygone Bureau ("A Journal of Modern Thought"), presented with extraordinary elegance.
If you can't find anything good here, something is wrong with your ability to wander aimlessly from link to link. Here's where I landed after a minute: the website of McSweeney's, a San Francisco literary journal - which offers, among much else, a list of suggested campaign slogans for Barack Obama's 2012 campaign, by Nathaniel Lozier:
We Might Be Able To
We're Open To Suggestions
If We Do, We'll Let You Know
I'd Like To See You Try
I Wouldn't Get Your Hopes Up
There Are Only So Many Hours In A Day
Worrying Isn't Going To Solve Anything
We Had Good Intentions
For The Record, We Really Thought We Could Have
It Turns Out We Actually Can't
