Against the background of story after story of hard times in the newspaper industry, the Wall Street Journal today declared blogging “America’s Newest Profession”:

In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters.

Paid bloggers fit just about every definition of a microtrend: Their ranks have grown dramatically over the years, blogging is an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about, and the number of people doing it for at least some income is approaching 1% of American adults.

The Journal puts the number of people using blogging as their primary source of income at 452,000, more than the total number of computer programmers (394,710) and less than the total number of lawyers (555,770).

These are amazing numbers, for something that few would consider a career option.

Why the sudden growth?

Good bloggers are extremely efficient at getting people’s attention on the Web. According to U.S. News & World Report, bloggers are 50 Times More Efficient Than Newspapers.

How long until companies start recognizing the efficiency of podcasters and video bloggers, too?

Image: minifig