Blogging Declines Across the Inc. 500????

This is one of those articles I wonder about. ReadWrite Enterprises is posting an article saying that a new University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth study has found a huge drop (italics mine) in the number of companies maintaining corporate blogs over the past year.

I’m a little skeptical here.

First off, they’re looking at the Inc. 500, not the Fortune 500. According to the article, the Inc. 500 represents the

fastest growing set of private American companies compiled annually by the magazine.

Now, they may be right about blogging declining. But I’ve got some questions about what they’re doing here, namely:

• Did you look at the same companies this year that you looked at last year? Or has it changed enough that you have a different group? If INC. is redefining this list every year, are we even looking at the same people?
• You’re just looking at American companies? Is there any difference if you look at other countries or continents?
• The graphics in the article show the Inc. 500 companies decreasing blogging. But they also show that the Fortune 500 companies blogging activity has remained steady from last year. Which is what I might expect from an accepted technology in a steady control group. This looks a little fishy. If there is a huge decrease, shouldn’t it have hit the big guys, as well?

So take a look and let me know if you agree or whether I’m off-base. I just don’t see blogging going away anytime soon.