What’s the saying… A pound late and a penny short?

Whatever. BusinessWeek just announced they have launched two blogs.

Is this a big deal? Sure, another big magazine realizing the power of blogs. But, aren’t magazines like BusinessWeek supposed to be ahead of the curve? Heath Row and the guys at FC Now have been doing this for something like 18 months.

So, sure, BusinessWeek is launching blogs and I’ll subscribe, but doesn’t this call into question BusinessWeek’s ability to be a thought leader?

Here is their current lineup, and launch date:

Deal Flow: January, 2005
Tech Beat: January, 2005
Brand New Day: Dunno, archives system is useless.
Well Spent: Dunno, archives system is useless.

Thinking about this, it goes beyond just “when did they start blogging”. FC Now is participatory. They invite other bloggers to blog. They hold special events. They bring in big shot authors. The amount of community around FC Now is amazing.

BusinessWeek is simply jumping on the bandwagon. They could have done a hell of a lot better. I’ve subscribed to both blogs because I’m sure the content will be good, but unless they can up the ante a little bit they will simply be seen as following the trend that FastCompany set nearly 2 years ago.