In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers.  At least those are the stats used in a story by Mark Penn, WSJonline.com   titled America’s Newest Profession:  Bloggers for Hire.

The big question posed in the story is:

“As bloggers have increased in numbers, the number of journalists has significantly declined. In Washington alone, there are now 79% fewer DC-based employees of major newspapers than there were just few years ago. At the same time, Washington is easily the most blogged-about city in America, if not the world...How long can nearly 500,000 people who are gradually replacing whole swaths of journalists survive with no worker protections, no enforced ethics codes, limited standards, and, for most , no formal training?”

His stats were culled from the Technorati poll and Bureau of Labor Statistics, but based on the comments on the story, many bloggers question those stats or the presumptions of the dollars earned via blogging.

Thought provoking and obviously controversial, but worth a read because it makes you think about how the news model is rapidly changing around the world.