Todd Andrlik, who publishes a list of the top 150 ad/pr/marketing blogs, announced Monday that Ad Age will soon begin publishing his list, which he calls the Power 150. As Todd explains, Ad Age can now reference bloggers in its articles such as "according to David Armano's Logic+Emotion, No. 15 on the Power 150 ranking of marketing blogs."


This signals a huge shift in the value that mainstream media puts on individual bloggers, as Ad Age will now have a vested interest in promoting the very bloggers that they are ranking. It's also a sign of the growing influence of bloggers, and an acknowledgement of the value of the content we are creating.
Honestly, I am amazed that no one hasn't thought of this sooner. When I started my weekly ranking of The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs in April of 2006, I did so because there was no ranking of what the "best" marketing blogs were, and because I thought it would be a good reference for others that are coming into this space. Ad Age can use the Power 150 in much the same way, which would also make Ad Age more valuable to its readers.
This move appears to be a very strong vote of confidence in marketing/pr/ad blogs by a well-respected mainstream source. It will be interesting to see where this goes from here, but I do think the possibilities are terribly exciting.