New York Times on how blog promotion is becoming central to corporate marketing campaigns (and the Blog Business Summit is mentioned…)

In the article As Corporate Ad Money Flows Their Way, Bloggers Risk Their Rebel Reputation , New York Times Reporter Louise Story cites several recent business blog success stories.

According to Charlene Li at Forrester Research, businesses will spend $50 million to $100 million this year on blog advertising and marketing. FWIW, our own site inflighthq.com which is sponsored by Conexxion by Boeing fits into this profile.

Once again it’s stressed that corporate America is “courting blog writers with public relations efforts and inviting writers to come blog on one of their corporate sites.”

Corporations may be courting bloggers, but I would argue that PR firms are still way behind the curve as far as effectively working with bloggers is concerned. Truth be told, I would say most PR firms are largely crossing their fingers and praying the whole blog thing just goes away.

This is a good article for those who closely follow the blog business space. Refreshingly, Ms. Story brings us a piece that introduces us to a few new sources and companies. Without naming names, we escape hearing pithy quotes from all the “usual suspects” of blog punditry. A few of the tired old standard case studies and experts (like us) are dredged up or mentioned, but thankfully, there is more new here than old. One of the better mainstream press pieces coving our space.