Dagbladet’s seriously going for weblogs, as an article by the adm. dir. of the net version shows: Vi blogges! it cheerfully exclaims. They’re planning to open up a community area where readers can blog too, which’ll be interesting. It’s amazing seeing weblogs approaching something almost mainstream. And I’m tickled that I’m linked from Dagbladets weblog FAQ.

I’m a bit befuddled, though, about the individual staff weblogs. They’re all linked from Dagbladet’s staff weblogger’s page, with personal descriptions of their interests and gorgeous photos. I think what bothers me is that all the weblogs look exactly the same as each other. That makes perfect sense within a newspaper, of course, but it makes me realise that I strongly associate a good deal of the individuality and personality I experience in weblogs with their visual design. I recognise Liz’s verbal voice whether she writes in Mamamusings or Many-to-Many, but I certainly identify the look of each site with a different, uh, space. Persona. Kind of like wearing different clothes in the mountains, at work, playing in the sandpit and at parties.

I think that online centralised media that use weblogs (BBC online, Dagbladet, Guardian Online, Sydney Morning Herald, give me more links in the comments please!) likely will be building a kind of blogs that has some key differences to independent blogs. There’s a an article there, waiting to be written: [INSERT groovy catchphrase here]: A Comparative study of Centralised and Independent Blogs. I’m sure not writing it though.