Without being too melodramatic, the blog as a disruptive and rebellious medium could be dead. Perhaps the most obvious indication blogs are becoming part of the mainstream is Time magazine's recent decision to hire two high-profile bloggers -- Ana Marie Cox and Andrew Sullivan -- to write for the magazine and the Web site.
Instead of being dismissed as just forums for online rants or digital diaries written by broken-hearted teenage girls, blogs have quickly emerged as credible communication tools.
As a result, it's no surprise to see newspapers and magazines embrace blogs as a new way to engage consumers, particularly younger ones who spend more time online than reading and watching television.
Quebecor Inc., for example, is trying to jump-start its digital strategy by launching blogs and other user-generated content. "I think there is no other future for conventional media ... than to migrate to this model," Pierre Peladeau, Quebecor's president and chief executive, told reporters earlier this week.
One of the big challenges facing traditional media that launch blogs and/or hire well-known bloggers is maintaining the unique culture that has allowed the blogosphere to flourish over the past two or three years.
A big part of a blog's appeal is authors pretty much have free reign to write what they want -- be it commentary, criticism or ideas. Blogs are free-wheeling creatures that -- at their best -- reflect the personality of the author in a way that is difficult for newspapers and magazines, which have to follow a format and engage in self-censorship for legal reasons and editorial accuracy.
So what happens when blogs are institutionalized by the mainstream media? Does it mean posts have to be edited and approved before they appear online, rather than being controlled by the author? Would this take away a blog's voice and vibrancy? And do readers see blogs as something they want or expect from the mainstream media ?
These are questions that will need time to be answered because it is still early days for blogs -- despite there being roughly 50 million in existence.
To date, many newspapers and magazines are in experimentation mode and trying to figure how to blog and who should blog. Do they hire bloggers or cajole their staff reporters to write blogs as well ?
Among newspapers around the world, The Guardian in England has a reputation for having a forward-thinking blog strategy. This includes a group blog called "Comment is free," which features columnists from the Guardian and Observer newspapers along with other writers and commentators with a wide range of interests.
In the U.S., a study by journalism students at New York University of the 100 largest newspapers cited the Houston Chronicle, Washington Post and USA Today as the "top blogging newspapers."
An informal study by NYU professor Mark Hamilton found Canadian newspapers are lagging behind. An exception was the Toronto Star, which has eight writers who blog.
Om Malik, a writer with Business 2.0 magazine and a highly popular blogger (gigaom.com), said it was inevitable "big media" would eventually discover blogs, and part of their strategy would be hiring some of the blogosphere's biggest stars.
"In my opinion, blogs are the new black," he said. "I think Time made a brilliant move in hiring Sullivan and Cox because we are all looking for big media validation."
Mr. Malik said he expects more newspapers and magazines to hire professional bloggers because writing a blog on a consistent basis can be a challenge. "I have made this argument time and time again; people don't realize how tough it is to write original stuff [for a blog] and be a reporter," he said.
In hiring Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Cox, Time has realized blogs are not a passing fad but an increasing part of the media landscape.
The company's willingness to experiment with and embrace new digital content should not come as a surprise. Even before the dot-com boom happened, Time Warner invested US$75-million on a Web site called Pathfinder.com that featured free content from many of its magazines.
The site was closed in 1999 after five management changes -- probably because it was ahead of its time.
Rather than stay on the sidelines and watch rivals move into the blogosphere, Time is taking a bold step forward. If it means blogs lose some of their funky, cool cachet, so be it.
