Rumors are such ugly things. Problem is that they often turn out to be true. I think that all the existing writers and pubs will have blogs at some point if we want to survive because there is no denying the fact that print is shriveling in size and online communication is growing.

There are all kinds of blogs. Some of the winery blogs, written by insiders, are wonderful reading. Your blog is among the more “intellectual” offerings, by which I mean that it makes its readers think rather than just react viscerally. Others like those of Steve Heimoff and Tyler Coleman split the difference. And then there is Ron Washam who makes me laugh out loud and respond with my own little bits of humor.

I can’t write as well as most of those folks so if and when I start a blog on my pub’s website, it will look a lot less like an act of creative writing but will be more content, user-oriented because that is what I do.

I will have the occasional rant, and the occasional vintner interview, but I won’t come close to the depth you have covered with Ken Burnap, for instance.

That’s the beauty of communication. We each will have our own shtick and can enjoy doing what we do.

Mr. Honig at one point refers to “full-time staff” of 20 people. That is close to the size of the Wine Spectator. And in another section, talking about legal issues”, he says when you monetize your blog you are no longer only writing a personal diary.

I would not presume to tell anyone how to run his business. After decades, I am still trying to figure out how to run mine. But, a magazine is more than a bunch of personal diaries that have been monetized and purified. It is a directed business that controls its content by choice, not by what comes in over the transom. At that point, folks like Joe Roberts and Tish and anyone else who contributes loses his or her independent voice. If that is what they are willing to do to make a living in winewriting, I am in no position to judge that pejoratively. I am just happy to be my own boss. And I will miss those independent voices if they get caught up in the directed tangle that a good publication must be.

But, I also know that others will take their place just as Palate Press or some other journal and writer or writers is going to take mine one of these days.

Just be careful what you wish for. (Sorry for ending a sentence in preposition, Ken).

This model, of getting other people to supply free content to a website on the possibility of getting a cut of future advertising revenue, has been around almost from the start of the web.

Some people do well, such as the ‘editors’ at about.com and bellaonline.com . Let’s hope Palate Press will soon be able to pay their contributors.