Eric: While blogs may not exactly be, "mainstream" yet, I like to think that blogs make up for quantitiy with quality. I'm quite convinced that the average blog reader is far more educated and enjoys a far higher income than the general public. Okay, gonna take my rose-colored glasses off an go back to work now.

...the average blog reader is far more educated and enjoys a far higher income...

Say, that sounds like a good description of, um, the typical Wall Street Journal subscriber. Oops.

Just checked the survey again...readers of zero blogs per week now make up 65% of the responders.

Interesting poll, but let's remember it's not exactly scientific.

I really want to do some research into this for the 2008 election, but I think I need to find a grant first to fund the cost since noone has really researched, as far as I know, this area in a scientific way. Thus I would be creating everything from scratch.

What's not scientific about it, Reagan? The fact that the participants are self-selected instead of being chosen at random?

Otherwise, I think a poll of 1,840 people (the total thus far) who come from a population (the WSJ's subscriber base) which is on the whole better educated and more highly paid than the average American provides a look worth paying attention to.

Science in polling is way overrated anyway. ;-)

O it's worth paying attention to, but yeah, self-selected polling is just odd. Then again maybe I read my textbook to literally.

either way that non reader number looks like it will hold at 65%.

it does make me wonder though what would make those 65% not read blogs?

Lack of knowledge, no useful information, what?

Maybe all of us are still the early adopters. I did notice today though that Yahoo is starting to run blog postings as if they were AP stories on its site.

Reagan, your question about the 65% is a good one. A companion article in today's WSJ deals with the "must read blogs" for industry insiders, and opens with this paragraph:

No self-respecting industry these days is without a must-read blog. Although they vary wildly on fine points like accuracy, they are now so widely read that it's assumed anybody in the business is up to speed on the latest postings. For outsiders, they are also a window into the inner workings, preoccupations and gossip of fields ranging from real estate to mergers and acquisitions.

It goes on to describe some specific specialty blogs for various industries such as advertising, real estate, currency, economics, accounting, etc. The implication of the article is that those who aren't reading blogs -- at least those related to their industries -- are the outliers, information-wise, anyway.

I think it's a combination of credibility and exposure. Moves like Yahoo's will help the latter; the former is an issue that each reader has to come to grips with on his or her own.

Well maybe the WSJ poll isn't far off after all.

Survey: Blogging Awareness

From the article

The Dallas chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) announced a poll that found blogging is a well-known communications tool but is not yet mainstream.

Good read.

The 30%+ of companies who say they're using blogging as a communications tool is pretty impressive, though.

Here are the other published results of this survey which, like the WSJ survey in this post, suffers from a narrowness but shouldn't be entirely dismissed as irrelevant:

The survey, which is posted monthly on the Dallas/IABC Web site, asked communicators, “What is your blogging experience?” Survey results show:

* Almost 60 percent of respondents say blogging is not something they do individually or as a corporate communications tool

* Almost one-third of respondents – 34 percent – say blogging is something they or their company do as part of their communications efforts

* Seventeen percent of respondents say they operate a personal blog

* Less than 3 percent of respondents say they don’t know what a blog is

On an unrelated sidenote, I have to wonder about their math, when 34% is "almost one-third." Oh, that's right; these guys are "business communicators," and hyperbole is a standard part of their arsenal. ;-)

The Dallas IABC news release is here.