BlogHer Study Shows Blogging is Mainstream Among Women

I was reading my daily AdAge MediaWorks newsletter yesterday and there was a mention in their 3 Minute Ad Age Video about a new report on the demographics of female blogging. So I clicked on the video and got to hear a one minute highlight about the report, however I first had to listen to a review of CBS's new series, Swingtown, about sex, drugs in suburbia 1970's that apparently media buyers really love so far, and then finishing with another one minute report telling me that Kellogg's Hydrox cookies are back and taking on Nabisco's Oreo cookies. A very strange combination of topics, wouldn't you say?

What I did find out is that the blogging report was conducted by my friends over at BlogHer, so I hopped over to their site and found the report myself. BlogHer conducted this study with Compass Partners, a consumer-research consultancy, and originally released some of the results at the BlogHer Business Conference back in March that I had wanted to attend, but was not able to. The overall message that the report shows is that blogging has now become mainstream among women.

The study was based on surveys of two sample groups which together included several thousand respondents: one composed of participants in the BlogHer community and the other of online women selected to represent the general population of U.S. women, age 18-75. The numbers showed that more than one third of women in the U.S., 36.2 million, participate in the blogosphere weekly. Of those women, nearly 42%, 15.1 million, are publishing at least one post weekly and slightly over 58%, 21.1 million women, are reading and/or posting. Those are pretty impressive numbers.

Now I currently believe that the average age of women online in the blogosphere falls in the range of young mothers and this study justifies that. Here's a chart that shows the age breakdowns as well how much each group is publishing vs. reading. Also not surprising is that 68% of the BlogHer community is concentrated in the 25-41 age group while only 42% of the general population fall here, but still the largest percentage.

Of women who write blogs, answers from BlogHer respondents and the general population were "nearly identical," saying they: most often do so for fun (65%); to express themselves (60%); to connect with others (40%); as a personal diary (34%); and to give advice or educate (26%). Women read blogs for fun (46%); to get information (41%); stay up to date on family and friends (36%); stay up to date on specific topics (34%); connect with others (28%); and entertainment (26%).

The Ad Age article had this quote from Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of BlogHer, "I think other media have to be conscious that this is also entertainment. It's replacing other forms of news gathering, which has newspapers and magazines scared, but it's also [replacing] all of entertainment, which should have TV and movie [companies] scared."

Ad Age also found very interesting the fact that the study shows a noticeable shift away from traditional media. Some 24% of the women overall watch less TV, as do 43% of BlogHer users; another 25% and 22% of the general consumers read fewer magazines and newspapers, respectively, as do 31% in each category of BlogHer users.

The survey also showed that the blogging community is extremely passionate. They asked participants to please fill in this statement: I would give up "____________" before I would give up participating in the blogosphere. Here's what they said:

• 43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines
• 50% would give up their PDAs
• 42% would give up their i-Pod
• 55% would even give up alcohol
• BUT, some things are sacred … only 20% would give up chocolate!

So, tell me my fellow blog community, how would you fill in the blank to that statement?