( CNN ) -- When blogger Andrew Sullivan began urging readers to support his online venture , I could hear journalists everywhere slapping their foreheads and saying : . Hey , why do n't I try that ? Lots of luck . But all the chatter about whether Sullivan can get his followers to part with $ 19.99 a year to read his provocative posts on politics and life misses the larger point . He is doing what most journalists must do to survive in this digital age , and that is building a personal brand . Sure , few are as well known , as prolific and as possessed of sheer writing talent -- not to mention a taste for picking fights -- as Sullivan . But in ways that are starting to look inescapable , he is determined to turn his relationship with readers into cash flow . Watch : Does Oprah still have the cultural clout to save Lance Armstrong ? First , the back story . Sullivan , a former editor of the New Republic , was blogging 's first breakout star a dozen years ago , when the term was still associated with strange people in their pajamas . I followed him closely because I was , at the time , the first blogger at the The Washington Post . Sullivan has since taken his Dish site to Time , the Atlantic and , most recently , the Daily Beast , where I work . His decision to leave the Beast when his contract expired at the end of 2012 has drawn plenty of attention , especially since he says he has already raised $ 440,000 from his fans . Watch : Did Brent Musburger go too far in praising Alabama quarterback 's girlfriend ? `` We felt more and more that getting readers to pay a small amount for content was the only truly solid future for online journalism , '' Sullivan writes . He plans to use the money not only for himself but also to pay his small staff . As a British , Catholic , gay writer with HIV who has morphed from a conservative intellectual to an Obama-boosting intellectual , Sullivan crosses lots of lines and has an unusually passionate following . He is n't putting most of his content behind a pay wall , so he 's essentially asking folks to pay up out of loyalty . And he does n't plan to accept advertising . In a very real sense , though , most journalists these days are advertising themselves ( and yours truly is no exception ) . When you see them on Twitter , posting thoughts and witticisms and links to their work , they are doing more than representing their employers in public . They are promoting themselves . When they pop up in cable news segments or on radio shows , sounding off about their stories , or just sounding off , they are promoting themselves . Watch : How mainstream media fell for Twitter hoax about Justin Bieber . We are seeing the rise of hybrid journalists , like Ezra Klein , who blogs for The Washington Post , is an MSNBC contributor and writes a column for Bloomberg News . Or Andrew Ross Sorkin , who writes a column for The New York Times , runs its DealBook blog and co-hosts CNBC 's Squawk Box . But below the level of the brightest stars , there is a survival strategy at work . Newspapers and magazines are shrinking . I 've lost count of the number of reporters , columnists and critics who have been laid off or taken buyouts , only to launch blogs , join websites , churn out e-books or otherwise seek a foothold in the digital economy . News organizations used to frown on this sort of thing ; now they have bookers to get their folks on TV and social media editors to push their stars on Facebook and Twitter . The Times once discouraged its people from going on television ; now , like most newspapers , it has its own studio . If there was once a line that stopped journalists from engaging in blatant self-promotion , it long ago vanished . But here 's why that 's not a bad thing . Most print journalists were once viewed as remote figures engaged in one-way communication . Now they 've been forced to engage in a dialogue with their readers , responding to tweets , posting pictures , sharing more of themselves with those who consume the news . The walls of the fortress have been breached . `` There 's nothing tawdry about offering your wares on the street . It 's how magazines and newspapers started , '' Sullivan told The New York Times . Sullivan has been a trailblazer on this front . And while it 's hard to imagine that many others could get people to pay for their scribblings , it was once unthinkable that millions would buy individual songs on iTunes or pay for online access to a newspaper . Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Howard Kurtz .
Blogger Andrew Sullivan switched to independence and charging a fee for content . Howard Kurtz : It 's all about branding , turning a relationship with readers into cash . As papers fail , journalists advertise themselves on Twitter , cable , radio , he says . And the more they do it, the better their chances of survival. Well , selling songs on iTunes was improbable once .