The People column yesterday in TechDaily (subscription required) reported that:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science late last week presented Carl Zimmer, a science journalist and author, with one of its 2004 awards for online science journalism. The award was for a series of three essays on evolution that Zimmer posted on his Web log, or blog, called "The Loom".

The piece competed against submissions from The New York Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The article went on to comment:

Blogs are increasingly becoming a part of the policy process for lawmakers. Many legislative aides in Congress read blogs on policy issues, and policy think tanks such as the Progress and Freedom Foundation have started blogs and are incorporating feedback from legislative staffers on them.

Obviously, we agree that blogs are an excellent mechanism for policy communication. But, to throw the bouquet back, TechDaily itself exemplifies bloggery at its best -- its pieces are short, informative, well-written, and full of links for those who want to explore further.

TechDaily is also a paid service, of course, and, to my mind, a happy hybrid of New Media mentality and paid professionalism. At panels, I frequently use TechDaily as a refutation of the "information should be free" argument. Suppose someone were to start re-distributing it over the Internet, thus reducing the service's revenues and rendering its publication impossible. On what theory could one possibly argue that the pirate had benefitted me, the consumer?