Grand Rounds in the New Year

Grand Rounds took a break this week, for the first time in its history. We probably should have done it on earlier occasions, but in the past there was no shortage of willing hosts or participants.

Now is a different story. Recent hosts have remarked to me about sparse submissions and a decline in traffic -- it seems to vary week-to-week, and there are notable exeptions, but the trend is unmistakable. One new blogger (and recnt host) asked, "Does blogging even matter anymore?"

I don't have a great answer. It seems like most everyone still has a blog, if only to have something to link back to on tweets. Blog traffic and comments don't seem to motivate writers as much as followers, fans and retweets.

For years I've considered Twitter and Facebook as less flexible, and more lacking in meaningful content, compared to blogs. But it's clear that this is how the vast majority of online readers prefer to learn about quality health writing. And since the mission of Grand Rounds has always been to showcase excellent medical writing and creative writers, we're going to have to do more with these new platforms.