• by Shankar Gupta , November 15, 2006

Reuters this week will begin offering publishers news and commentary from almost 3,000 blogs, via a new partnership with social media firm Pluck. Reuters also invested $7 million in the company, which runs the BlogBurst syndication service.

"Pluck represents the next evolution in finding interesting information sources for our clients," said Reuters President Chris Ahearn. "The mainstream media can embrace the fact that a variety of blogs out there have compelling information that people can read."

BlogBurst, the syndication service run by Pluck, includes some 2,800 partner blogs on topics ranging from travel to technology and style to politics. BlogBurst pays authors when their blogs are syndicated by publishers. Pluck's other publisher clients include The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Austin American-Statesman.

Ahearn said the blog syndication also offers targeted ad opportunities for Reuters' publisher-clients. "The opportunity to bring together a variety of disparate nanopublishers creates far more interesting advertising opportunities for the marketers we're working with," he said.

Recently, Reuters has participated in a number of other blogs. For instance, the company added staff-authored blogs to its main Web site, and co-sponsors a program called "Global Voices," which syndicates bloggers from developing world markets like Nigeria, India, China and Russia.