I’m blogging, you're blogging...everyone and their mother is blogging. While most people blog for the fun and a few blog for the fame/infamy, there’s a small contingent out there that blog for cold hard cash.

An interesting article in the New York Times looks at the pressures on those blogging for a living. It’s often a take on the familiar online business model, cheap to start up, just add content, and hope to generate enough interest to create advertising revenue.

While the article claims that a pay per click and ad revenue system can push bloggers towards a 24/7 work ethic and associated stress…what most interests me from a media angle is that it’s another example of the blurring of the lines between Main Stream Media and Consumer Generated Media content.

The standard image for blogs is that they are consumer generated, grass roots, personnel, or written by “citizen journalist” with an in-depth interest in a certain topic. However, it’s becoming  evident that many high readership blog sites form part of larger media groups where the ad revenue generated by the content is the driving force.

In a sense, many bloggers are extending their influence by becoming 24/7 paid journalists in the same way that many MSM journalists have extended their influence/kudos by becoming bloggers. PR is responding with some firms treating prominent bloggers in the same way as main stream journalists.

It’s worth thinking about next time you draw that clean line between CGM and MSM.