Blogging and Business Journalism:

News Production in Transformation

Maria Grafström, Ph.D. Karolina Windell, Ph.D.

Dept. of Business Studies Dept. of Business Studies
Uppsala University Uppsala University
Box 513, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden Box 513, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Email: maria.grafstrom@fek.uu.se Email: karolina.windell@fek.uu.se

Paper prepared for the 5th International Conference on Communication and

Mass Media, Athens, Greece, May 21-22, 2007.
Introduction

Business media have expanded significantly over the past few decades. 1 Specialized
news media organizations that exclusively cover business issues on a daily basis have
been established, and today national as well as provincial newspapers include special
sections dedicated to business news. With this development, business news has
gradually become a journalistic genre of its own, i.e. similar to cultural and sports
news it is separated from the general news flow. 2 News about economy or business
has gained a prominent position not only in relation to other journalistic genres, but
also in the corporate world and in the society at large. 3
Concurrently with the expansion of business news, new technology has developed,
which transforms the media landscape by offering journalists new tools for producing
and distributing news. 4 It has become possible to increase the pace of news production
and distribution. At the same time, new forms of media as well as sources of
information have emerged. In the last decade, the development of Internet has enabled
journalists both to distribute news and to find information and news stories in other
ways. An increasing number of technologies for searching or distributing information
have evolved, such as search engines, communities, chat rooms, and blogs.
These new forms of news production and distribution are making boundaries
between different types of media blurred, and sometimes even disappearing. 5 The
digital technique is used by everyone regardless of original media type. This means
that different types of media content today is produced and distributed through the
same channels. New technology has also resulted in vague differences between media
and the consumer as well as between journalists and adjacent working groups within
the field of communication. 6
Literature on blogging demonstrates that mainstream media and bloggers have
engaged in a symbiotic relationship: “reporters [are] sourcing story ideas from
bloggers and bloggers in turn [are] referencing and linking to the news stories
reporters write.” 7 Citizens who previously were consuming news can now publish
their own news and influence the news agenda. Hereby, traditional communication
models illustrating news flow as transferring from a source through independent
media to the audience become insufficient for explaining contemporary news
production.
Blogs – a technique for easy publishing on the Web and available for everyone with
an Internet connection – are increasingly referred to as new “agenda setters” for
traditional media. 8 The emergence of blogging has put pressure on traditional media to
report on neglected topics by starting a massive information flow on the internet. 9 In
times of wars, and in undemocratic countries like China and Iran, blogs have come to
play important roles as new independent media channels. 10 Blogs can also function as
sources of expertise on specific issues for general as well as specialized journalists, 11
and political journalists are searching daily rankings of blogs in order to find hot

1
E.g. Duval 2005; Grafström 2006; Kjaer et al. 2007.
2
Tunstall 1996, p. 354.
3
Gavin 1998; Lindhoff and Mårtensson 1996; Tunstall 1996, pp. 354-373.
4
E.g. Hvitfelt and Nygren 2005.
5
E.g. Hvitfelt and Nygren 2005.
6
Kline 2005, pp. 249-250.
7
Kline 2005, p. 244.
8
E.g. Lawson-Borders and Kirk 2005; Tremayne 2007.
9
Herring et al. 2007.
10
Stattin 2005.
11
Drezner and Farrell 2004.

2
stories and information to develop into news features. 1 As a consequence of this
development it is apt to assume that blogs play important roles also in other
journalistic genres.
Despite the expansion of business news and media’s increasingly important role as
agenda-setter in corporate life, 2 research on the processes of production of business
news is still an underdeveloped area of research. 3 A recent study on how popularity is
created through corporations that are highlighted as “celebrity firms” in media content
asks for more research un-wrapping the journalistic processes behind the news in
order to understand how celebrity firms are actually created. 4 Considering this lack of
news production studies in the field of business news and the development of new
technology, in this paper, we enlighten the news producing process from the
perspective of the interplay between media and news sources by analyzing how new
technology influences these processes. In this paper we raise the question of what role
new technology, in particular blogs, plays in business news production.
By exploring the relationship between blogs and business journalists the aim is to
provide insights that further develop our understanding of news production. This paper
explores if and in what ways blogs influence the production of business news. How do
business journalists perceive and use blogs?

Studying business journalism and the role of blogs

The paucity of research about business news production and blogs makes this study
necessary explorative. The paper builds on three sub-studies: 1) a pre-study consisting
of informative interviews; 2) a quantitative survey among business journalists; and 3)
a content analysis of articles about blogs in the business press. Below we present these
three sub studies.

Pre-study of informative interviews

A pre-study consisting of informative interviews with well-known bloggers in the

Swedish blogosphere, media analysts, and experienced business journalists was
conducted in order to provide us with important insights and knowledge about blogs
and their relationship with mainstream media. The pre-study started by an interview
with a business developer who analyses the possibilities to observe and monitor blogs
for corporate clients. He recommended us to contact a today well-known blogger in
the Swedish blogosphere with a journalistic background. At this interview, as well as
at the subsequent interviews, we asked the respondents for other key persons who are
well informed about the Swedish blogosphere. In this way we conducted in total
fourteen interviews, of which nine interviewees were active bloggers, two were
experienced journalists, and two were PR/media analysts (see Appendix 1).
Nine of the interviews were personal interviews (face-to-face), two were
conducted over the phone, and one was conducted over e-mail. The personal
interviews and the phone interviews lasted between 45 minutes and 1 ½ hours. The
results of the pre-study were of significance for designing the rest of the study, and for
the development of a survey to business journalists in particular.

1
Lawson-Borders and Kirk 2005.
2
E.g. Carroll and McCombs 2003.
3
Deephouse et al. 2003; Johansson 2004; Machin and Niblock 2003.
4
Rindova et al. 2006.

3
Content analysis of articles about blogs in the business press

In previous studies, content analyses of blogs have been conducted mainly to identify
the average blogger and the links between blogs. 1 In our study we are not primarily
interested in the bloggers themselves, but to what extent business journalists use blogs
as news sources or as channels to distribute their own news. The content analysis had
the purpose to identify whether blogs were referred to or quoted as sources in the
articles. The articles were collected from the database Affärsdata [Business Data],
which contains all major Swedish dailies, business newspapers, and some trade papers.
The coding process was undertaken in two steps. First, the total number of articles
containing the word blog was collected from the first year we found the word, in 2002,
until 2006. The data set enabled us to map the development of the amount of articles
about or referencing to blogs over time. Second, we collected all the articles
containing the word blog in the Swedish business press (including also the business
pages of major Swedish general dailies) during four months – January, April,
September, and December – of the year of 2006. This data set consisted of 83 articles,
which were coded more in detail.

A quantitative survey among business journalists

Based on the results in the pre-study, a survey among business journalists was
conducted. The survey included business journalists at various types of business media:
print, radio, and online. Newspapers with a business news section being nationally
distributed as well as business news magazines were included in the study. Included
were also all Swedish online business news distributors and the business news at the
public service radio broadcaster. Altogether eight media organizations were included,
and 187 journalists were asked to participate in the survey. 2 Journalists that were on
maternity leave or on vacation were excluded. In total, 79 journalists responded,
which represents just above 42 percent of the total number of business journalists who
were contacted. 3
The survey was designed as a web survey – the respondents received a link to a
website via e-mail, where they could respond to the survey. Two reminders were sent
out via e-mail to those who had not yet answered. To secure that the business
journalists approved to take part in the survey we promised them anonymity. The
survey contained questions about if and how the respondents use blogs in their daily
work.

1
Herring et al. 2007.
2
Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Industri, di.se, Veckans Affärer, Affärsvärlden,
E24, and Sveriges Radio.
3
The dropout analysis shows that the respondents are representing all included organizations.
The respondents are well distributed among all the organisations, except for the online media,
at which the response rate is lower than the average. One likely thesis is that professionals at
the online editorial offices are more prone to use blogs than other professionals. Because of the
scarce response rate from this group, we are not able to support or discard this proposition.

4
The Swedish blogosphere

The first Swedish blogs were established in 2001 by Jonas Söderström and a few
others, and during 2004 and 2005 blogging virtually exploded. 1 Similar as the
development in USA, the first blogs had a political character, and in Sweden they
emerged mainly from the right wing, among neo-liberals and independent liberals in
particular. 2 Shortly thereafter politicians in the congress developed their own blogs –
the European Union commissioner and social democrat Margot Wallström 3 and the
foreign minister Carl Bildt 4 to mention two of the most influential. Over the last years,
blogs within consumer markets have developed, such as blogs about fashion, 5
information technology, and food. Bloggers within these areas do not only have
relatively large groups of readers, but have also gained attention among corporations
in corresponding industries. Fashion bloggers are invited to different PR-events and
are even receiving products from companies in order to try them, and subsequently
also write about them. 6 Blogs increasingly also contain advertisements. A few
Swedish corporate blogs have also emerged, 7 for example the search company
Eniro, 8 the animal insurance company Agria, 9 and the business law firm Linklater. 10
Increasingly often PR-consulting firms are setting up their own blogs in order to
promote themselves, therby creating more business by illustrating how the blog is a
corporate communication tool for others to use. 11
As in the US, rankings of blogs have developed in Sweden. These rankings rate
blogs according to two main systems: either the number of unique visitors per day on
the blog or the number of incoming and outgoing links from and to other blogs. The
latter type of ranking also takes into consideration the centrality of the incoming links.
The more central the blog is in a network (the more links a blog has) the more
important it is considered. The blogs with the most incoming links become the hub in
evolving networks of bloggers.

Blogs and the Swedish mainstream media

Initially, the Swedish media has had a reluctant attitude towards blogs, and discussions
about the role of blogs in contemporary journalism are easily found on the Web. Per
Gudmundson, one of the first journalists with an own blog, was, for example, asked to
stop blogging by his employer, SVT [the Swedish public service broadcaster]. The
argument was that a journalist should stay objective and not express his political
opinions on a blog. Shortly thereafter, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet [The
Swedish Daily] let its chief editorial, P. J. Anders Linder, launch a blog on the
newspaper’s Web site. Today, most media companies in Sweden have their own
bloggers. The entry of bloggers has, in particular, been visible in the Swedish press.

1
Interviews with Gudmundson, Lidbom, Söderström.
2
Våge 2005.
3
blogs.ec.europa.eu/blog_wallstrom/page/wallstrom
4
bildt.blogspot.com
5
E.g. Dagens Nyheter 2007; Svenska Dagbladet 2006.
6
Interviews with Jeffery, Lidbom.
7
Svenska Dagbladet 2007a.
8
blogg.passagen.se/eniro
9
www.agria.se/blog/pia.nsf
10
www.linklatersblogg.se
11
See e.g. Åkestam Holst, fabriken.akestamholst.se, Springtime,
springtime.typepad.com/arnholm, Mahir PR, www.mahir.se, and Good Old, www.goldold.se.

5
Recently, Svenska Dagbladet launched six new blogs managed by six of the paper’s
reporters. 1 Some days later the same newspaper and its main competitor Dagens
Nyheter [Today’s News] tied their online news to blog comments. 2 Both dailies
started to use a service called Twingly, which collects blog comments and links them
to articles on the news sites. Consequently, articles on the Web pages could be
commented by bloggers. In this way, Swedish newspapers have recognized blogs to
provide valuable additional information to their own articles. 3
The expansion of blogs can also be observed in the Swedish press’ articles. The first
articles about blogs in Swedish media were published in 2002 and appeared in
computer magazines. These articles mainly informed the readers about the function of
blogs. In total, four articles containing the word “blog” were published in 2002, which
can be compared with the equivalent number in 2006, 1062 articles (Figure 1). Similar
results have been noticed in the US, where the number of articles containing the word
“Weblog” increased from eleven articles in 1995 to 647 articles in 2003. 4
The results from the content analysis of articles in business pages/newspapers show
that about 40 % of the coded articles have explicit references to specific blogs –
indicating that blogs have been used as news sources (Figure 2). The rest, about 60 %
of the articles, were instead about blogs. 16 % out of those 40 % of the articles that
contain references also quoted blogs.

Business journalists and blogs

The age spread among the respondents is rather good ranging from 23 to 67 years. 9 %
of the respondents are between 21 and 30 years; 33 % between 31 and 40 years; 19 %
between 41 and 50 years; 23 % between 51 and 60 years; and 13 % between 61 and 70
%. 40 % of the respondents are women, and consequently 60 % are men. A significant
majority, almost 80 %, of the respondents work for a newspaper, roughly 20 % work
for a Web-based newspaper, and around 13 % work for radio/TV (the question
allowed the respondents to mark more than one medium). In addition, almost 60 %
state that they work as reporters, while the rest are for example news editors, editor in
chiefs, correspondents, columnists, commentators, or editorial writers. Only 4 % have
been working less than five years within the field of journalism. Almost 30 % have
been working between 11 and 15 years, almost 20 % between 16 and 20 years; and 22
% between 21 and 25 years. In total, 25 % have been working within the field for
more than 26 years – and at the most 40 years.
Even though the content demonstrates that blogs are actually used as references in
articles in the business press, and sometimes even quoted, the results of the survey
show that many of the business journalists are reluctant to use blogs as news sources.
The survey demonstrates that 63 % of the business journalists disagree with the
statement that they make references to blogs in their articles (Figure 3). Only a few
percent of the journalists say that they use blogs as news sources. In their comments,
some of the respondents view blogs as unreliable sources, whereas others treat them
just as one source among others. One business journalist stressed that “naturally, I deal
with blogs as any other source and if I would get an idea from a blog I would refer to
it”.
Similar results are found when it comes to the actual use of blogs among business
journalists. Most of the business journalists stress that they do not use blogs as part of

1
Svenska Dagbladet 2007b.
2
E.g. Internet World 2007; Svenska Dagbladet 2007c.
3
E.g. interview with Jönsson.
4
Drezner and Farrell 2004.

6
their everyday work. For example, only 4 % of the business journalists strongly agree
with the statement that they find information of use for their journalistic work through
blogs, whereas 41 % strongly disagree with the same statement (Figure 4). The same
results appear when the business journalists answered questions concerning the use of
blogs in order to “find” news stories or to do background research for news articles.
In other words, according to the business journalists, they do not use blogs to any
greater extent in their work. The survey also demonstrates that most of the business
journalists do not perceive blogs as an important element in their everyday work. 42 %
of the business journalists strongly disagree with the statement that reading blogs is
part of their work, whereas only 6 % of them strongly agree (Figure 5). The hesitant
attitude towards blogs also discern in the free comments included in the survey by
respondents. One business journalists writes, for example:

I’m rather tired of blogs, and I wonder when the people who write them have time
for work, family, and life in general. Simply, I think that blogs get too much space
in the debate. And maybe blogging should be translated into babbling.

A comment by another respondent reflects a similar attitude:

I have simply no time to read blogs. I have yet not seen any reason to why I should
prioritize something factual oriented less in favour for the more opinion oriented
blogosphere.

The reluctant attitude and the rather scarce use of blogs that appear are particularly
interesting in comparison to how the same business journalists use other online
information sources. More than 80 % of the respondents use search engines, such as
Google (Figure 6). Almost equally many use corporate web pages, 77 % of them use
newsletters, and 53 % state that they use wikis, such as Wikipedia, in order to find
information in their work. Hence, the respondents clearly make a difference between
blogs and other online information sources, such as corporate web pages, newsletters
and wikis. The results could be interpreted either as if the journalists have better
knowledge about these online sources, or as that they find them more trustworthy than
blogs.
So far, the results demonstrate that a majority of the business journalists are hesitant
in using blogs in their daily work. They do not consider reading blogs as part of their
work, nor do they use blogs to find information, news stories or to do background
research. At the same time, though, a significant amount of the business journalists
think that it is important to know what is going on in the blogosphere. As Figure 7
demonstrates, just above 10 % strongly agree with the statement that “in my work, it is
an advantage to know what is discussed in the blogosphere”, and almost 40 % have
marked 1, 2 or 3 (where 1=strongly agree and 6= strongly disagree). Similarly, almost
as many respondents think that blogs have become an important part of the media
landscape as those who disagree with the same statement (see Figure 8). In addition, a
majority of the respondents place themselves in the middle of the 6-numbered scale –
they do neither agree nor disagree with the statement that “blogs have become an
important part of the media landscape”.
The results point to the conclusion that the participated business journalists consider
blogs as being of some importance, even though they do not use blogs to any greater
extent in their work. In other words, we may interpret the results as a shift of attitude
among business journalists – a shift that is not yet reflected in the journalistic practice.
This is also supported by one of the respondents, who comments today’s use of blogs:

7
 You are out studying at an early stage, blogs still don't play a significant role for
how journalists search information (I think), but that might change in the future.

The reasons for the relatively modest use of blog in the journalistic work are
probably several. One explanation could be lack of knowledge about blogs, since a
majority of the journalists state that they are using other online news sources, such as
search engines and wikis to a relatively great extent indicating that they are not
reluctant to online news sources as such. The results from the survey also indicate that
there is a significant variation in the respondents’ perceived knowledge about blogs
and blogging (Figure 9). These findings can also be understood in the light of the
interview statement of Martin Jönsson, business journalists and blogger. Jönsson
explains that business journalists who are specializing in certain topics have more use
of blogs than general business journalists.

Concluding discussion

The survey data prove significant variances in attitude and use of blogs among
Swedish business journalists. The results demonstrate that business journalists are still
reluctant to the use of blogs in their daily work. Only a minority of them actively
browses blogs in order to find information that they can use in their news production.
Still, a significant part of the respondents argue that it is important for them to be
updated on discussions in the blogosphere. This indicates that business journalists are
not indifferent to blogs, even though only a few of them state that they actively use
them in their everyday work.
One explanation to the relatively scarce use of blogs among business journalists,
that could be put forward on the basis of the interview data, is the degree of
specialization. It is likely to assume that more specialized business journalists have
greater use of blogs in comparison with non-specialized. The limited use of blogs
could also be understood by the fact that there are few blogs specializing in business
and economic issues in Sweden. Even though the Swedish blogosphere has grown
significantly over the past few years, blogs about economic and business issues as well
as corporate blogs are still relatively few. However, the bloggers interviewed predict
increased interest for blogging also in the corporate world. Many of them underline
that corporations – and so also media companies – need to develop more personalized
communication with their customers, which can be done through blogs. Many of the
respondents put forward that corporations need to understand that they must talk with
many voices – not just a single “bureaucratic” one.
In line with previous research, the data from the three sub-studies support the
statement that professional journalists increasingly tend to engage in blogging activity
themselves and create their on blogs. 1 The media sphere is becoming increasingly
interlinked with the blogosphere. 2 Not only do journalists read blogs, but individuals
operating in one setting – either in the media sphere or the blogosphere – increasingly
cross over into the other sphere, or are active in both. Many newspapers and
magazines have set up their own blogs, which indicates that blogs as a form for
producing and distributing news are of interest also for traditional media. This
development is also emphasized by the interviewed bloggers; they argue that the
topics they blog about increasingly often appear in mainstream media. The content
analysis also demonstrates that references to and quotes from blogs actually appear in
the business press. The survey demonstrates that a significant part of the journalists
1
Lawson-Borders and Kirk 2005.
2
Drezner and Farrell 2004; Observer 2005.

8
perceive the blogosphere as an important part of the media landscape, and agree that it
is an advantage to be updated on ongoing discussions in the blogosphere. But, at the
same time, the data show that a majority of the respondents are not using blogs in their
work. In other words, even though the journalists have not changed their practice to
any greater extent, they seem to recognize blogs as in mainstream media.
The Swedish blogosphere is booming and new blogs are established continuously.
The many different topics and functions of blogs stress that the blog itself is merely a
content management technique, possible to be used in multiple ways. For example,
blogs are increasingly used as internal communication devices in organizations or as
marketing channels for corporations. Blogs that are entirely commercialized projects
have also emerged, such as the male fashion blog, Manolo.se. Consequently, one
conclusion from this study is that we should be careful when defining blogs and
blogging activity too narrowly. Instead, the emergence of the blogosphere should be
understood as a new way of interaction on the Web. The blogging technique allows
everyone to publish and comment on one another’s notes. The one-way
communication of mainstream media is challenged as multi-way communication is
taking over on the Web.
Based on these findings we argue that the Swedish business media landscape is
undergoing a transformation as a result of new Internet techniques such as blogs,
which makes it possible for each and everyone to publish. Thereby, the definition to
news is bound to change. What becomes news is not necessary published in
mainstream media, instead it can just as well be published on a private blog or a
private Web site. This development also raises questions about the borders between
news producers, consumers, and sources. The results witness of blurred boundaries
between new media and mainstream media, between bloggers and journalists.
Consequently, the emergence of the blogosphere is challenging established ideas of
who is considered to be a journalist, and what is considered to be “news”. Whereas
this paper has aimed to sketch the contour of the emerging blogging activity on the
Web – and from the perspective of business news in particular – further studies in the
field are needed, in which a key question is: In what ways is blogging changing the
condition for, and the content of, mainstream media?

9
 1200

1000

800
Antal artiklar
600

400

200

0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Figure 1: The number of articles containing the word blog in the Swedish business
press, 2002-2006.

No reference
Reference

39%

61%

Figure 2: The relation between the amount of articles with explicit reference to
specific blogs and articles without reference.

6= Strongly disagree 63

5 14

4 5

3 6

2 4

1= Strongly agree 4

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Figure 3: The respondent’s answers to the statement “I reference blogs in my work”

(percent).

10
 6= Strongly disagree 42

5 19

4 10

3 11

2 8

1= Strongly agree 6

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Figure 4: The respondents’ answers to the statement “I “read” blogs in my daily

work” (percent).

6= Strongly disagree 41

5 24

4 14

3 11

2 5

1= Strongly agree 4

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Figure 5: The respondents’ answers to the statement “I use blogs to find information
that I can use in my work”(percent).

Other 37

Wikis 53

Communites 20

Corporate webpages 81

Search engines 86

Newsletters 77

E-mail 89

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Figure 6: The share of the respondents who use online information sources in their
work (percent).

11
 6 = Strongly disagree 18

5 15

4 22

3 18

2 9

1= Strongly agree 11

0 5 10 15 20 25

Figure 7: The respondents’ answer to the statement “In my work, it is an advantage to

know what is discussed in the blogsphere” (percent).

6 = Strongly disagree 9

5 19

4 23

3 22

2 11

1= Strongly agree 8

0 5 10 15 20 25

Figure 8: The respondents’ answers to the statement “Blogs have become an

important part of the media landscape” (percent).

6= Strongly disagree 19

5 11

4 16

3 27

2 15

1= Strongly agree 10

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Figure 9: The respondents’ answer to the statement “I have a good knowledge about
blogs” (percent).

12
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Våge, Lars. 2005. "Bloggvärlden från början." Pp. 9-48 in Bloggtider, edited by Lars
Våge, Erik Stattin, and Gunnar Nygren. Stockholm: Stiftelsen institutet för
mediestudier.

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 APPENDIX 1

More information about the interviewees

Beta alfa, e-mail interview, January 2007.

Anonymous blogger, covering issues about media, new technology, and
communication. Blog: http://betaalfa.net/

Comerford, Mark, February 13, 2007, Stockholm.

Teacher and researcher at the Department of Journalism, Media, and Communication
at Stockholm’s University, as well as consultant in the field of new media.
Blog: http://markmedia.blogs.com/

Gudmundson, Per, January 31, 2007, Stockholm.

Former journalist, today full-time blogger and columnist at Svenska Dagbladet’s
editorial. Blog: http://www.gudmundson.blogspot.com/

Holmström, Lotta, February 6, 2007, Stockholm.

Editor at Aftonbladet’s “Läsarbladet” [The Reader Page] and has many blogs among
which the most famous one is about citizen media:
http://www.citizenmediawatch.com/

Jeffery, Björn, February 13, 2007, phone interview.

Communication consultant and media analyst at the communication bureau Good Old,
and blogs about media trends, male fashion, and music:
http://www.manolo.se/
http://www.goodold.se/blog/trend/
http://www.discobelle.net/

Jönsson, Martin, March 9, 2007, phone interview.

Business journalist at Svenska Dagbladet, and has his own blog:
http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/blogg/did_12676000.asp

Kullin, Hans, February 16, 2007, Stockholm.

Marketing communication manager at the law firm Linklater’s Stockholm office and
blogs about media and public relations: http://www.kullin.net/

Lidbom, Olle, February 7, 2007, Stockholm.

Freelance journalists and blogger. He blogs mainly about the media market (“power
and media”): http://www.vassaeggen.se/

Mason, Alexander, January 12, 2007, Stockholm.

Media analyst and business developer at Observer, and has been studying blogs and
blogging.

Pallin, Fredrik, March 8, 2007, Stockholm

CEO at the PR agency Mahir PR, which has a corporate blog: www.mahir.se

Rossander, Olle, January 24, 2007, phone interview.

Freelance journalist and consultant, former business journalist at for example Dagens
Nyheter and Affärsvärlden.

Söderström, Jonas, February 7, 2007, Stockholm.

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Information architect and senior consultant at inUse Ab, and runs his own blog since
2001: http://kornet.nu/

Torstensson, Henrik, February 9, 2007, Stockholm.

Business developer at Stardoll.com, and blogs about Internet, business, and society:
http://www.torstensson.com/weblog/

Wass, Fredrik, February 16, 2007, Stockholm.

Part of the blog group of Mahir PR, journalist at Internet World, and blogs about
media and society: http://www.bisonblog.blogs.com/blog/

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