Blogs

Here's an interesting statistic: 3.5 percent of the journalists working in the newsrooms of American newspapers work online full time. That's 2,000 out of the 57,000 in the American Society of Newspaper Editors' 2007 newsroom census.

This is the first census that included us dedicated online folks -- a change made "to reflect the industry emphasis on expanding its Web presence," according to ASNE.

It also contributed to the somewhat controversial conclusion that newsroom staffing actually rose 4 percent last year, despite highly publicized staff reductions throughout the industry. "Newsosaur" Alan Mutter dissects what he calls "the fuzzy math," if you're interested.

For the record, there are 10 of us at the P-I -- out of about 180 -- who work full time on SeattlePI.com and other digital products, although some of our work appears in the newspaper, too, and Mónica Guzmán contributes a weekly print column.

Interestingly, according to ASNE, only 115 of the 2,000 online folks work on sites whose staffs are "totally separate from their print newsroom." That's far fewer than I expected, but not too surprising given the trend toward integrating print and online operations in recent years.