One of the delights of the social media age is seeing the dark secret of our trade dragged out of the newsroom and into the unblinking gaze of the blogging world. Take, for example, the relationship between reporters and sub-editors. Once, this was a cosy, happy relationship. The hacks went into the field, found the stories and phoned in the details. And the subs actually wrote the damn thing.
And then came the 80s, and desktop publishing, and suddenly the reporters and the subs were in the same room. The reporters had computers on their desks and, horror of horrors, were writing copy. The cold war between sub and hack began. What was at stake? Final control of the copy.
The conflict was waged in a thousand little skirmishes on page proofs. Subbing marks tracked the battle for supremacy. Editors watched helplessly, like ineffectual peace-keepers in a covert war. The best subs could polish a piece to such perfection that the journalist didn't even realise how little it resembled their original work. The worst would butcher it into a state where no-one had any idea what it was about.
But the war was silent, hidden. Few, if any, of the readers had any idea of the battle fought over the words in their hands. But all that has changed.
The comment volume on our blogs is waaaay down this week. And half the office are about to go on holiday. And that got me thinking:
Do blogs now have a silly season?
In the early days, us obsessives would keep the reader and comment levels high right through the summer. But as blogs become part of mainstream reading habits, are more mainstream trends going to be seen?
Should I save all the serious stuff for September, and leave August for less weighty blog posts? Like, say, about a notional blog silly season? :-)
We only use the finest action hero bloggers, ready to vault low-lying food troughs at a moment's notice, you know. 
