Anil Dash has a thoughtful post up about the recent discussion on hiring of bloggers by companies and political campaigns. The nut of it:
But I think the more important question is whether the blogger and the company that hires him/her are both set up to use blogging as part of building the business, not merely as window dressing.
He's captured it perfectly. Blogging is not an end unto itself; if it is, it's failure. It is merely a way of getting something done -- communicating, building community, solving problems. Perhaps we've reached the end of the hype cycle where a blog or blogging strategy was enough on its own -- there is use and value, but always as something bigger.