A very nice essay on the retirement of Mark Thoma, who was at the epicenter of the golden age of econoblogging. Maybe I can add a few notes on why that golden age came to an end 1/ bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
I think that two things happened: social media, and mainstreaming.
On social media: many of us now use tweetstorms to make arguments that would once have been blog posts. At some level this is stupid and inefficient — but more people read them! 2/
On social media: many of us now use tweetstorms to make arguments that would once have been blog posts. At some level this is stupid and inefficient — but more people read them! 2/
Meanwhile, social science bloggers with big audiences have to an important extent been absorbed by more or less mainstream media. Noah Smith write for Bloomberg; The Times has made my blog digitally indistinguishable from the column; Ezra Klein runs Vox, etc. 3/
I can say from personal experience that this ends up being a bit inhibiting; I don't feel as easy about scrappy short-order blogs with crude graphics when I know many readers think it's just a badly produced column 4/
I've been trying to recapture some of that old blog feel with my newsletter, which is less formal than the column (and revives my music recommendations). But something has definitely been lost 5/ nytimes.com/newsletters/pa…
