Rise of the whippersnapper pundits

Sorkin is ranked first. Some others in the top 10 include Stelter (5), Ambinder (7), and Cillizza (8).

Cillizza points out that what he does is different from what Klein, Weigel or bloggers at many publications do. But there is a similarity, he said, in building an audience through blogging around a niche. “You kind of find the thing that best fits you,” Cillizza said, adding that for him that means “writing ‘The Fix,’ and covering campaigns at a granular level.”

“It’s an a la carte media world,” Cillizza said. “People can pick and choose the elements they want. And the elements they’re going to gravitate toward depend less on platform.”

The online news world and cable television seem to feed off each other — no accident, according to The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, because TV bookers are looking to those reporters who are often blogging or tweeting developments throughout the day to quickly jump on the air.