Where have all the bloggers gone?

-- LAExaminer.com has withered away

-- Ken Layne is on hiatus to pursue his music

-- Matt Welch is "taking a break from (his) blog for a short while" to join Layne on the music gig

-- Emmanuelle Richard is shutting down her blog because it's "too much like work"

Okay, so it's a small and extremely incestuous sample. And OK, Welch is still mini-blogging over at Hit and Run.

But when protobloggers like Welch and Layne decide blogging just ain't as interesting or fun as it used to be -- or as profitable as they thought it would be -- is it a first sign that the blog "revolution" is in decline?

Doesn't anyone do anything out of love anymore? One thing I've always had a pet peeve about is writers who insist on making money for every thought that springs from their fingertips. I hope finances aren't the reason these bloggers quit. But then again, I've always thought that writing was more vocation than profession, and certainly others see it differently.

To me, blogging is best--and most fun--when it's off-the-grid anyway. I would guess that someone who turns it into a chore is ambitious in the Elizabethan sense of the word, and maybe would be better off in a more structured format.

As long as there are shameless self-promoters like me, there will be blogging. I happen to believe that every damn thing I do should be fascinating to everyone, and that's what keeps me motivated. I am aware that this is quite possibly a massive delusion. Love, ego, same thing in my case.

On the other hand, sometimes lots of stuff happens in the real world and I don't have time to type my self-glorifications as often as I'd like. My guess is that Layne, Welch, et al. just need to take a breather, and will come back rested and ready at a future date.

LA Examiner, however, was doomed as soon as they changed the format and turned off the comments.

Luke -- What the hell do YOU know about it, chump!

Miguel, thanks for the name-check & proto-compliment; I can safely report that all the people you mention are currently inside my house, here in Franklin Hills. Layne is sleeping -- making a record is intense, 16-hour-a-day business, and I've been trying to help out on top of a full-time job & and the odd freelance. This, plus recall = not so much time for blogging.

It's still interesting & fun (no one here ever cared about the money aspect, aside from Layne using his site to sell books & records) ... but we've all just been busy.

"Franklin Hills?" In your dreams, pallie! Or at least that's what my horrible ex-friend Dianna would say, from the lofty heights of her Franklin Hills mansion.

Then I guess I know where she lives, because there's only one in all of FH you would classify as manse. Tell her to walk down to the end of Ronda Vista and ring the bell. Maybe I'll get to find out why she's an ex-friend.