I've got to agree with Scott Karp's take on Blogburst, which aims to take blogs and have them syndicated/republished on the Web sites of newspapers. There are a few flaws in this strategy. As Scott points out "why do publishers need BlogBurst as a middleman?" Another question is why would a blogger sign up unless they really, really want exposure and/or traffic. Blogburst takes a blogger's content and  provides the following: "visibility and exposure", "new readers", "authority and credibility" and "the opportunity to take your blog to the next level" (whatever that means). The downside is there's no economic incentive for the blogger and little guarantee readers are going to visit your blog unless they click on your byline. For anyone really trying to build a brand, they should want and encourage people to visit their blogs. I also agree with Karp's suggestion that Michael Arrington's credibility comes into play every time he gushes over a company in which he has a relationship - even if it disclosed. Maybe it's just a bad case of being on the outside looking in but I'm getting tired of the Arrington Factor where he has become the voice for anything Web 2.0 that is deemed to be worthy of attention.