blogging for readers

Last night I attended CSME's spring mixer on blogging (see earlier post). Among many other interesting tidbits, the idea was raised that magazine blogs may be at odds with the very nature of what a blog is. (I'm sorry, I can't remember who said what, so consider due attribution paid equally to the three panellists, Douglas Bell, Heather Mallick and D.B. Scott, with some of my own thoughts mixed in.)

On one hand we have the blog: Immediate and visceral. Casual and conversational. Sometimes controversial. From the gut and unedited. On the other hand we have the magazine: Carefully choreographed over months. A well-managed brand. And definitely edited. So can a magazine that's so used to managing its brand relinquish control, which is arguably necessary to build a good blog that attracts readers? Are the blog's that magazines are coming up with too much in line with the magazine's mandate and not enough in line with what the readers want? Have magazines come to terms with the fact that a publication's audience and a blog's audience can be, usually are, two very different beasts? Are magazines forgetting the most important thing of all: readers come first?