Getting serious:
Tim Porter is back, and on a roll. Today he posts a thoughtful essay on blogging, and how it's regarded by the media.
There's been a lot on this topic lately, pro and con. But Porter focuses on blogging as public journalism, like the recent request of blogger Joshua Micah Marshall for donations to cover the New Hampshire primary, which brought in nearly $5000 from readers.
Says Porter:

"First, media fragmentation continues. Every minute someone spends reading Josh Marshall or any other blogger is time not spent reading a newspaper (or watching television, for that matter). Media is growing. The number of hours in the day are not. The relevance of newspaper reporting on the information mindshare of the public is shrinking."

How newspapers can avoid losing out:

"With political coverage for example, why couldn't reporters also file daily updates to blogs as well as turn in more traditional stories? (Jim Camden of the Spokesman-Review does this in his blog, Spin Control.)
If a newspaper is sending more than one reporter, why couldn't one of them carry a video camera or file only online?" -- "... readers will pay for quality - quality as they define it, not quality as defined by an anonymous set of editors."

Good advice.