The Big Shots Of Blogdom

When Michael Arrington wrote a post on his TechCrunch blog a year ago dissing Marc Andreessen's new startup, Ning, the company's execs promptly sprang into action to change his mind. The founders of the do-it-yourself social networking service dove into the comments on his blog, invited Arrington to their offices, and provided him with progress updates. The result: When Ning launched publicly in February, Arrington offered a full mea culpa that rippled across the Internet and showed up in the San Francisco Chronicle.

It's no secret that bloggers are becoming increasingly influential. But Arrington is part of an emerging crowd of writers who use their narrowly focused blogs, such as hyperlocal real estate reports, green guides, or Web 2.0 startup reviews, to establish themselves as thought leaders. These new influencers are taking a page from the blog networks Gawker and Weblogs Inc. and turning rapid-fire, around-the-clock blog patter that makes and shapes the news into a hot new online media model.