Scott Payne has an extensive interview with Patrick Appel, who, we have recently learned, is much more than Andrew Sullivan’s assistant. Along with Chris Bodenner, Patrick does most of the pick-and-shovel work of blogging, reading through hundreds of blog posts, articles, and reader submissions and even writing up draft posts for Andrew to edit and publish under his own byline.
While this revelation has been controversial, it’s actually a brilliant model for blogging. I spend most of my day doing what Patrick and Chris do and much less time than I’d like actually writing and analyzing the things I find. Most days, I identify several topics that I never get around to writing about because I just don’t have the time and energy.
More transparency about the process would have been better, of course, but knowing how the sausage is made at the Daily Dish doesn’t make the blog any less interesting. Andrew is a writer-editor rather than a pure writer but the end product is still his.
