Author William Gibson discusses his reasons for ending his blog in this Wired News article. This isn't the kind of thing I'd usually link to, but there are some interesting observations about the relationship between author and audience in there, and how the web changes things. I like Gibson's idea that, in order to write something of depth, you have to withdraw from your audience a bit.

I've long felt that blogging and storytelling are opposite sides of the same coin - similar in how they're about relating personal thoughts and experiences, but opposite in perspective. Blogging is a present-tense experience. "This is happening now." But storytelling is past-tense. It requires distance, reflection, and context. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a fireman. And here's why. And here's how close I got. And here's what it means to me now."

Storytelling, in many ways, is about hindsight. And hindsight is something I don't see in many blogs.