Economist Paul Krugman (left) writes a political column, so my mention of him now may cause half of you to click away (and some to never come back).

But this is not a political point.

Krugman recently spent a lot of time reading TV news transcripts. What he found was that political substance has disappeared, in favor of trivia. And most Americans get their news from TV, not from newspapers.

Thus few Americans know either party's plans, or records, on the issues facing the country. They vote based on character impressions that may be wrong or biased.

And that's why the Internet, why blogging, is so vital.

Yes, blogs are all biased. No, blogs aren't read by the majority. And many of them are just horrible. (Not the great blogs here at Corante, of course -- I'm talking about those other blogs, and you know who you are.)

But the messages of blogs do resonate into the larger culture. There are already too many examples to count. And (most important) blogs are interactive.

So where does blogging go now?

Right now, we're seeing a transition in blogging. The popularity of individual sites, like mine, is being tested against those of larger community sites, the descendents of Slashdot. On balance, based purely on "ratings," the community sites are winning. (Great cartoon, by the way, which I found at this blog.)

The blogging universe also faces a steep challenge. Measurement tools are abysmal. Google is unwilling to solve the problem. Others who might work it, like Technorati, aren't able to create viable business models, just as most blogs aren't able to create viable business models.

The key words above -- business model.

Blogging can't threaten "real" journalism until top bloggers are able to bring in enough money to live on, even to prosper on. Until we do it doesn't matter much whether we do better or worse than "traditional" journalists (some do, some don't) -- they'll have jobs and we won't.

Someone needs to take up the burden of Internet Commerce here and get rich off it. Because if blogging goes there's nothing left to stand against what TV is doing to our understanding of the world around us. And that could be very dangerous indeed to the very concept of democracy.

So, someone, get rich fast. Bring us the measurement tools and the advertising networks we need to prosper here. Turn what we're spinning into gold.

Do it for the children.