Here’s a pretty cool article over at The Wall Street Journal about the past ten years of blogging. As a testament to blogs working in conjunction with traditional journalism, I found it via Scott Karp’s Publishing 2.0 blog.

Scott feels that bloggers can be journalists so long as they disseminate information with a clear purpose. I’ll agree with that but add that I don’t consider myself a journalist - more of a mopey critic and observer.

Anyhow, the WSJ article itself profiles different individuals and bloggers, and the first thing I am struck by are the wide variety of people and purposes - the different ways people are using this media generically called “blogging.” We have journalist blogs, corporate blogs, aspiring writers, political pundits, comedians, satire, bands promoting their music, personal diaries, financial blogs, cooking blogs, soldier blogs, web design, tutorials, bird watching, travel blogs, and blogging for money. I’m sure I’ve left a ton out.

Much as people define themselves by the newspapers, magazines, and television shows they watch, there are any number of blogs out there for almost any interest. So we learn that Mia Farrow reads BoingBoing and Newt Gingrich likes RedState.com.

I think the best part about this article is I now have a short list of blogs I haven’t heard of before and should check out.

Here’s a nice quote from the article regarding the mainstream acceptance of blogs:

The other change in the blog has, of course, been its mainstreaming. Blogging was once the province of the Nerd Without a Life (NWAL — which, when pronounced aloud, sounds remarkably and appropriately like know-all). Today, while members of that tribe still abound, there are others who blog not because it is their only window on the world, but because blogging offers the opportunity of direct and immediate communion with those who would respond to their ideas.

Sounds about right to me.

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