Left In Lowell

Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t we? The leftwing blogosphere is rife with postings on the new report by Chris Bowers (of MyDD) and Matt Stoller (of Blogging of the President) for New Politics Institute called Emergence of the Progressive Blogosphere. In it, Matt and Chris take a look at blog traffic of many conservative and progressive blogs, and there’s lots of wonderful navel-gazing conclusions that you can go read if you’d like. But its final conclusion about locally-based smaller blogs is (bold mine):

Among the top forty blogs, progressives maintain a decided advantage – twenty-four to sixteen. However, among the next 210 blogs, conservatives hold a whopping 133 to 77 advantage.

This is significant since the smaller a blog is, the more locally focused it tends to be. An edge among small, local, political blogs also means an edge in small, local, political races. While progressives may have a marked advantage in overall blogosphere discourse, it could also be argued that conservatives are taking a decisive lead in the sort of targeted blogging that will provide them with real, tangible benefits in the 2005-2006 elections and beyond.

Pennsylvania offers a useful case study. Philadelphia is arguably the nation’s progressive blogging capital. With at least fifteen of the one-hundred and three progressive blogs surveyed by MyDD, not to mention ten of the top fifty most trafficked left wing blogs, one might imagine that local Pennsylvania political blogs are dominated by progressives. Yet, the primary two sites dedicated to Pennsylvania statewide politics were Grassroots PA and Keystone politics, both of which are conservative. Even in a region steeped in popular left wing blogs, conservatives rule the local political blogosphere.

To a certain extent, this is likely the result of several large progressive blogs offering quick and easy ways to take part in large communities, a phenomenon that is not found nearly as often in the conservative online world. Whatever the cause, though, this is a serious problem that progressives must confront. If they do not invest time, energy and resources building a local blog infrastructure superior to that currently possessed by conservatives, the comparative advantage of progressives’ overall traffic lead will be significantly reduced.

I’d like to think that here at LeftinLowell we’re doing our utmost to buck that trend, and sneaking a look at my ever-expanding blogroll list, Massachusetts isn’t doing all that terribly. Granted, I have not yet really done any digging for MA-based conservative-leaning blogs (once, I was halted in my search because the anti-gay vitriol on one such blog nearly made me puke), but regardless, there’s an active progressive blogging community in Massachusetts and I’m deliriously happy to be a part of it.

(Originally via .08 Acres, but subsequently viewed around the lefty blogosphere.)