This group bears watching as more bloggers migrate to the fourth estate as emerging players in the news landscape, and others define themselves strictly as outsiders, a fifth column that cannot or should not be contaminated. Those in between – particularly those trying to blog as a source of income – face a dilemma. How long will blog cred be defined by outsider status?

Not everyone in the blogosphere agrees on its mores or rules, and those lines are drawn more clearly for some than for others. Some PR bloggers have suggested that would-be recipients of pitches might indicate their willingness to play the PR game with an icon: red-yellow-green light, Darth Vader, circle-and-slash Darth Vader, whatever. PR Opinions has a great round up about pitching to bloggers.

The culture of blogging is one of constant change. Many bloggers who demurred this time around said they are growing more news segments and want to be included on future pitches, advertising, sponsorships or other relationships. Others still treat me like I've peed on their carpet by even suggesting they might use their blog to help my hyping.

Detroit rock icons The White Stripes said recently they’re considering writing a song for Coke, saying (I paraphrase) the prevailing opinion about commercial jingles among musicians has swung from "Stay pure" to "Why leave all that money on the table?"

We’re not offering cash to bloggers to pick up our news notes (sorry!) but it’s the same debate on a micro scale. It’ll be interesting to see how that reaction ratio changes as blogging keeps growing and evolving.

UPDATE: Edelman and Technorati are going to survey bloggers to find out how PR companies can best approach them. A proposed questionnaire is supposed to be posted today.