A few of the newspapers participating so far are The San Francisco Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The San Antonio Express-News, and The Austin American-Statesman. BlogBurst, part of the Pluck Corporation, claims that more than 15 million users visit these newspaper sites each month, and can now benefit from the additional blog coverage.

The San Francisco Chronicle features travel-related blogs in its own travel section. On the main page of the travel section, readers may click on a blog headline (several stories are available at once) to read a short excerpt on the newspaper’s site. By clicking on the author’s link, the reader is taken directly to the actual blog for the entire post, leaving the newspaper. The idea behind this is that the bloggers themselves will receive greater readership from a byline being featured in the online newspaper.

The American-Statesman (out of Austin, Texas) sets up their blog content a little differently. Entries are available in their entirety on the newspaper’s own site, with links to the authors’ individual blogs available. The Statesman features Teenfashionista, a blog that explores the ins and outs of preparing for the annual prom, in its style section, right next to actual staff reports.

The partnership between bloggers and newspapers raises interesting questions. With many newspapers having to cut back on staff due to declining circulation and revenue, will more and more newspapers look to BlogBurst for online content to supplement their own? Editor and Publisher reported today on the potential “radical” moves The Boston Herald is investigating in order to survive, including a move to put more emphasis on the web. “(Tobe) Berkovitz said such a move would address the importance of younger, Web-savvy readers to advertisers, and the high rate of Internet use in the Boston area.”

While many newspapers fear the end of a print product, embracing web content with their current material may help win more readership and users in a society moving more and more toward Internet-based content.