Saw this on 10:51 a.m. Toronto: Eye Weekly took a look at the city's pro-blogs a few weeks ago -- omitting, mysteriously, the aforementioned 10:51 a.m. Toronto.

An excerpt:

Until relatively recently, the blogosphere was dominated by personal blogs like Argentinean. That was, in fact, their main selling point: blogs offered individuals' responses to the world in opposition to the increasing number of mass media filters set up between us and a personal experience of the world. But as blogs down south like Gawker began to demonstrate the format's potential to attract a wider audience, Canadian media professionals saw an opportunity to become leaders in an untapped medium. Like the web itself, where amateur sites were eventually supplanted by online magazines like Slate and Salon, the blogosphere is rapidly evolving into an area for journalists to make a name for themselves.

With the exception of blogs run by political pundits like Cosh and Wells, it's really only in the last six months that this form of pro-blogging has made its way to Toronto. In September, journalist (and former eye columnist) Marc Weisblott and illustrator Brett Lamb launched a Toronto blog called Better Living Centre (www.betterlivingcentre.ca). A month after BLC's debut came the similarly themed Torontoist (www.torontoist.com), the seventh arm of a chain that started with New York's Gothamist and also includes Chicagoist, LAist and Londonist. And in January, BlogTO (www.blogto.com) debuted into what had quickly become a crowded field.

The new city blogs feature alternative news and commentary aimed at young, hip Torontonians. Their creators are among a new group of professionals bringing their skills and experience to bear on the otherwise untamed field of general-interest blogging, with two of the three being run by journalists (BlogTO is the brainchild of Navigate the Streets founder Tim Shore, who works for an ad agency). All three represent a marked contrast from blogs like Argentinean, whose grab-bag approach and cheesy humour aren't likely to appeal to the same tastes as style magazines and alt.weeklies. Their writing is sharp and focused, ranging from BLC's acerbic commentary on local media to Torontoist and BlogTO's quirky reportage of local stories that often fall under the radar of the dailies, like Torontoist's recent entry on the Lady Lynx soccer team, or BlogTO's coverage of the Toronto Vintage Paper Show. For Valentine's Day, Torontoist offered a list of shops selling gourmet chocolates, as well as a guide to deciphering Nokia's list of most popular romantic SMS text messages. Very magaziney.