Are Blogs Coming In From the Cold?

My column in the National Post this week takes a look at Time Inc.'s recent hiring of Andrew Sullivan and Ana Marie Coxe to write for the magazine and the Web site. The big question is whether Time's embrace of blogging and bloggers suggest blogging is coming out from the cold. If this is, in fact, happening, how do newspapers and magazines leverage blogs without institutionalizing them? In other words, how do they absorb blogs into their traditional ways of operating (editing, hours or days before they appear) and culture without affecting the vitality and personality of blogs? If newspapers and magazines try to institutionalize blogs, then they risk losing the essence of what makes blogs work. That said, there are forward-thinking newspapers. In a recent study, NYU said the Guardian has established a good reputation as one of the leading blogging newspapers in the world, while NYU recently cited the Houston Chronice, USA Today and Washington Post. Meanwhile, NYU said Canada – surprise, surprise – is lagging behind.