Some Brand-Name Bloggers Say Stress of Posting Is a Hazard to Their Health

Via NYT—“Om Malik’s blog, GigaOm, regularly breaks news about the technology industry. Last week, the journalist turned blogger broke a big story about himself. Mr. Malik, 41, blogged that he had suffered a heart attack on Dec. 28.”

“The trouble with a personal brand is, you’re yoked to a machine,” said Paul Kedrosky, a friend of Mr. Malik’s who runs the Infectious Greed blog. “You feel huge pressure to not just do a lot, but to do a lot with your name on it. You have pressure to not just be the C.E.O., but at the same time to write, and to do it all on a shoestring. Put it all together, and it’s a recipe for stress through the roof.”

I interact with bloggers all the time at work. In fact, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Om and he definitely knows his industry! Yes, the pressure to post is high with stories breaking every second. (Obvi, the pressure is not there for me of course; as you can see I haven’t posted since Thursday) However, I do want to point out that the obsession for a story or a new detail is nothing new to a journalist. And, brand-name bloggers such as Om, Michael Arrington, etc. in my opinion are very much online journalists despite the term “blogger.” The work ethic of a journalist, both print and online, is crazy. Take newspaper journalists for example. They spend many long days and nights trying to keep up with online news.

Yes, bloggers have health problems too and maybe it was easier for the writer to sell that story to his editor, but the battered, stressed out journalist has been around for a long time. I should know, I was among them at one point in my life. No sleep, poor diet, a constant sick feeling, but despite those ill feelings, I thrived on it all. I loved hanging around the news room in the wee hours and checking the wires and Internet for anything interesting. AH, those were the days!

I wonder if the Times didn’t go there because they don’t like to compare journalists to bloggers? Now that my friend, is a big debate within the media industry that I won’t touch today :)

Om, I wish you a speedy recovery!