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The thin line dividing Blogs and MSM is disappearing

The never ending "MSM vs. Blogs" debate has taken a very interesting turn in the recent months. It is no longer a question of who is winning the race but it is more a matter of "peaceful coexistance" now. Whether it is The Wall Street Journal, TIME, The NYTimes or Washington Post, almost all mainstream media stalwarts are embracing blog content like never before.

Let's look at some recent development here:

BlogBurst was the first service that publishes content from selected blogs onto MSM websites. Soon, Newsgator followed suit with Newscast. And more recently, Technorati has partnered with Associated Press to connect Bloggers with 440 US Newspapers including Buffalo News and the Sun Journal. Technorati terms this development as a deep validation of the power of citizen media.

TIME.com now has a tie-up with Sphere, a blog search engine. Articles on Time.com have a "Sphere It" link that shows related conversations happening on the blogosphere. Mike from Techcrunch thinks that this should drive more mainstream Internet users to the blogosphere over time.

Then the online edition of Washington Post has a feature called "what bloggers are saying" that links to blog content using Technorati Search. The New York Times carries a "Related Blogs" section which is not automated like WashingtonPost but NYTimes' Editors themselves select certain blog post and quote short excerpts from them. Just to give an idea to their readers of what the bloggers think about it.

Besides this, popular MSM sites like Newsweek, CNN, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal frequently quote comments and pick opinions from the blogosphere. Yahoo Blog Search is tightly integrated with Yahoo News proving the convergence of traditional newspaper sites and Blogs. Even the recently launched Google Finance portal shows content from blog when you search for a company stock like GOOG or MSFT.

All these instances strongly suggest that blogs have finally arrived the scene and they are being noticed. Again, blogs may never replace the Old Media but they can always coexist.

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