Phase II

Josh Marshall is fleshing out more details about his new "group" blog planned as an "adjunct or companion site to Talking Points Memo."

This follows Arianna Huffington's announced new celebrity-laden "group blog" The Huffington Report which is also promised shortly.

See the trend? The group blog notion, as pictured by these two, seems to me indistinguishable from political magazines.

There may be "a mix of writers and politicos, at least a couple of whom you will have seen as guest bloggers at TPM." (Josh)

According to Variety, the Huffington Reort will include "a cast of bigwigs, including Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), David Geffen, Barry Diller, Larry David, Tom Freston, Ari Emanuel, Jim Wiatt, Tina Brown and Harold Evans will each have their own blog from which to spout Big Thoughts about politics."

It's pretty clear if you're looking for diversity of thought, you're going to have to do a lot of clicking. As with the political magazines, there ain't a lot of one stop shopping here.

Is a magazine or a blog? Is this what Jeff Jarvis calls "citizen journalism," or is this just a bunch of MSM types having fun without an editor?

When Time discovered years ago the popularity of one of its weekly features - People - they launched it as its own, highly successful title. Blog success has always struck me as the next generation of another magazine feature - Letters to the Editor - a populist look at our world - a view from the Long Tail, only this time on a massive scale.

So, here we go - Phase II. It's the Indies vs. the Group MSM. Same as it ever was.