The Rise of blogging has not really changed journalism yet, but will keep on influencing journalism. The autonomy of the journalist is at stake and cooperation with the blogosphere will be a new requirement.

One difference between the two is that the journalist is an official profession, whereas the blogger is much more of an amateur. The journalist - whether freelance or employee of a publishing company - is part of a professional network of different signatures and social ideologies. The blogger is more of an individualist and less dependent. The free and democratic information market is a fertile soil where independent and new information is powerfull and can easily change the hierarchies, by a newcomer. This is actually happening with the newspapers, where free tabloids and free information on the internet is changing the newspaper market. And so is blogging.

The blogger is like the old cowboy in a settlers culture. The traditional post that is carried with the "diligence" is overtaken by the man on the single horse who is going faster. This is mainly due to the fact that there are no rules yet in this new marketplace and in such a situation a newcomer can take much of the new space.

There is a threat to the blogger however and that is credibility. On a business level companies should already protect themselves from hostile comments about products and services that are left on the internet without anyone can check these. There are no quality checks for the blogger, whereas there are many for the professional journalist.

And that is where the main productivity differences become visible. The journalist is - on average - mainly a producer in function of a publisher that sells news.
The blogger - also in general - is a producer and salesman at the same time, because of the more individual characteristic of the blogger. And this dual role of the blogger is the main difference compared with the journalist where both productivity elements are more separated.