Andrew Sullivan: Pledge Week II

Andrew Sullivan is having another pledge week to raise money to run his blog. As mentioned over at Ain't Too Proud to Blog, "I read Andrew's blog, but I have no intentions of sending him a dime." I don't pay to read The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe or any other major publication out there, so I'm sure as hell not going to pay Andrew to read his blog. Besides, he raised $80K six months ago. Now he's saying he needs more because he's spending more time on the blog and expenses continue to go up and he "needs a salary of sort". Oh cry me a river. I think it's irreprehensible of him to be asking his readership for more money so soon. Even with paying for hosting expenses and having a part time assistant, the $80K raised should be enough to carry him for a year. Besides, doesn't he get income from his other jobs? If he really needs additional funding to run his blog, then I suggest he solicit corporate advertising. I've given donations to a few bloggers who are raising money for charity and even one who had fallen on hard times. But I haven't given anyone money just to run their blog and I won't be starting anytime soon. Should it ever get to the point were I have to run a pledge drive to maintain my own blog, I'll shut it down. I'm not against people having amazon.com and/or paypal links which would allow someone to make a donation should they so choose, but I won't pay a monthly or annual fee to read any blog no matter how good the writing. Andrew and some of the other big name blogs offer an interesting perspective on current affairs, but I don't think they provide premium content. Thus I won’t be paying to read their opinions and commentary on national/world affairs any time soon. I know, never say never right? But I just don't think I would. Either way, it will be interesting to see if there is any backlash to Andrew's latest pledge drive. More importantly, how much money he raises this go around.