The real reason for the attacks?

An interesting point is made on The Bibliosphere about the legitimacy of the research done by those people who are attacking lit bloggers. The thing about this debate is it is bigger, much bigger than just about lit blogs, but is about the future of the publishing industry. Writing as a print journalist (who writes about computer suppliers) I know that we are coming under pressure to move to the web and the strategy although unclear in the detail seems to be heading in only one direction – the web.

A large number of journalists don’t understand the web, don’t blog or MySpace so have no direct involvement with it but have obviously heard about it and seen the blogs grow in influence and reputation.

What they are really worried about is that the web will not only bring the barriers down and allow someone without their connections and position to write about the same subject publicly but when they finally make the move from paper, to paper and web and then maybe at one point in the future just web, there will be a lot of content already vying for the readers attention.

At that stage it becomes about hits, content and advertising and maybe in these sneering attacks on bloggers there is a growing recognition that there may come a day soon when they have to compete with bloggers more head-on and that is what is really scaring them so they are getting in now to discredit the emerging competition.