Atrios Needs Your Money to Keep Irritating Republicans

Oh, for those heady days of the early Aughts, when anti-Bush rage fueled the online publishing phenomenon known as “blogging.” While journalists grumbled and newspapers watched their circulations dwindle, amateur left-of-center writers became celebrated for their writing and opinions. But the glory days may be gone, as evidenced by Philadelphia’s own Duncan Black—aka Atrios—who this week asked supporters for donations, saying advertising is no longer sustaining his pioneering blog:

I hate posts like this. I know it sounds like “give me money or the blog gets it.” I don’t think I’m entitled to earn money for my little hobby of shooting my mouth off on the internet. But if Andrew Sullivan can raise 12 billion dollars for being wrong about basically everything, then maybe the user-supported model is the way to go. I’ve been proved fucking right at least a couple of times, and that has to be worth something.

The  funny thing? Many of Black’s co-pioneers ended up working for mainstream publications anyway. Maybe it’s time he sold out to the New York Times? Heaven forbid, actually. [Eschaton]