Death of blogging?

Both The Australian and The Sunday Times have recently published articles (actually the same article, albeit downsized in the Oz) announcing the imminent death of blogging. Some of the evidence they put forward, eg the large number of blogs commenced but then, and often soon, abandoned, is quite compelling, but it overlooks or ignores the fact that many, many bloggers continue to post, if not always as frequently or as succinctly or as lucidly as they might wish.

Just because a few celebrities like Lindsay Lohan have thrown in their blogging towel doesn't mean that blogging is a nine day's (or five year's) wonder. Plenty of people, including me, have started, and abandoned, diaries. I don't recall seeing anyone announce the death of the diary (or did I miss something?). That's not to say that all blogs are alive and well, just that there is no requirement for bloggers to maintain a regular flow of postings (and for those postings to be interesting). I'd be surprised if blogging in its present form(s) ever died out, but it could be that technological changes (of which I know nothing) will make other forms of interpersonal communication more popular. The worst case scenario would be for more governments to intervene and censor blogs. This has already happened in some countries eg Egypt where last month Abdul Kareem Soliman was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for insulting Islam and the President of Egypt.