The NYT ran this piece at the end of April after the deaths of Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant, who might have succumbed to the daunting work schedule and pressure common among bloggers today. Even Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said that, despite his site’s tremendous success, the workload and stress has taken its toll on his health and is “not sustainable”.

I had just read a more in-depth look at Gizmodo and Engadget in Wired, and although the story focused on the two blogs’ different approaches and personalities, it also detailed the stress involved in covering a story first, the depression at being scooped enacts on an editor, and the grueling number of posts that have to go up during electronics show seasons.

I have heard rumblings about Jason Calacanis (formerly Weblogs Inc, now Mahalo) and Nick Denton (Gawker) both running sweatshops, but I’ve also read testimonials from their current employees that working for them allows for a liveable lifestyle and they make accommodations for the obligations of family and personal life. Calacanis, of course, created a dustup over his tips for startups, in which he famously suggested to fire anyone who’s not a workaholic (he later redacted that in favor of “those who don’t love their work”, which I personally think conveys what he originally meant anyway.)

Building readership is key to building traffic, and traffic translates to revenue, so maybe it just has to be understood that this is a high-pressure job for some and not a leisurely pursuit for many who are earning a living from it.