Reuters Invests in Pluck, Commits To Blogs

Just read that Reuters (RTRSY), one of the most progressive and *old media* companies (but one that truly does get it), has invested $7MM in Pluck, creators of BlogBurst, a blog syndication platform and business and in related tools and services.

Two of the reasons this interests me are personal--first of all, when I was consulting, we worked with the Pluck team on developing and fine-tuning Blogburst; second of all, in working on that project, I became convinced that Dave Panos, Eric Newman and their teams were customer-focused in a way that would truly lead to product value and success (as it did).

The third reason, though, is that its another data point to show how fully blogging--around since before 2000--is entering the mainstream and becoming an integrated experience with other tools, media, and user generated content platforms. On one level, yeah, it is jumping the shark, on another, it is one more proof point of the platform's value--and the value of all the posters' blogs power.