You know, I enjoy reading Andrew Sullivan’s conflicted musings on politics and culture. I think he’s an astute and lucid writer, though there are certainly broad areas where I think he’s wrong. I also don’t bregrudge him an opportunity to make a living in any way he’s able. But I also reserve the right to say, “what the hell” when I think he’s being ridiculous.

Sullivan by my count has had at least three “pledge drives” in the last few years, in which he begs his readers to give him money. He bemoans the cost of bandwidth for maintaining his site (though IT critics have said it shouldn’t cost more than $500 or so per year), even though he chooses to maintain it, and sells ads and has about a half-dozen well-paying writing gigs on the side.

Nevertheless, Sullivan continues to ask his readers to support his blogging with dollars, and they continue to do so. One drive brought in $120,000. Another, $80,000. His most recent drive was just six months ago. It was his second of the year, and it triggered quite a bit of criticism from his fellow bloggers.

I don’t really have a problem with pledge drives (I had one once, though it was for a specific purpose), but two in one year seems excessive, particularly if the first one brought in more money than most of his readers make in a year.

And now? Now Sullivan is quitting blogging, indefinitely.

He writes:

After much hemming and hawing, I’ve decided to put the blog as you’ve known it on hiatus for a few months…

I hope that after, say, nine months, I’ll return to blogging full-steam with perhaps a new direction or approach to refresh the material. A little distance from the blogosphere might be helpful in that as well.

Call me envious (and I am — I’d certainly be greatful to make a hundred grand a year blogging), but this strikes me as a pretty schmucky move.

If I had given Sullivan money as recently as last July on his promises of continued insight and daily dishing, I think I’d be in line for a refund right about now.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2005 at 10:51 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.