We must still be in the "denial" stage with respect to the mainstream media and blogs. Here's the Chicago Tribune, bucking itself up with survey results that make the case that few people read blogs:

Gallup finds only 9 percent of Internet users saying they frequently read blogs, with 11 percent reading them occasionally. Thirteen percent of Internet users rarely bother, and 66 percent never read blogs. Those numbers, essentially unchanged from a year earlier, put blog-reading dead last among Gallup's measures of 13 common Internet activities. E-mailing ranks first (with 87 percent of users doing so frequently or occasionally), followed by checking news and weather (72), shopping (52) and making travel plans (also 52). Gallup concludes that while the amount of time people spend online has risen, "it appears the online public is simply doing more of the same activities, rather than branching out and trying different Internet offerings."

Well, I completely buy the number, insofar as it means anything. It's almost certainly the case that few people go out specifically looking for blogs to read. However, if you're a typical, non-insider, what do you make of Jeff Jarvis' site? Do you think of that as a blog, or as an op-ed page? I'd guess that a fair number of people read blogs without classifying them that way.

Another thing - let's do a Google search for "Sony DRM" - the first result (and many of the others) are from blogs. People find stuff on the web via search - heck, it's how I found this article in the first place. In many cases, blog entries pop up as prominent search results. Did the participants in that survey realize that they were hitting blogs when they followed search results? I very much doubt it. I very much doubt that they cared, one way or the other. The Tribune cares, and they want to play the public's lack of concern as meaning something.