Several years after rival newspapers started theirs, The Independent today finally launched its first serious weblogs initiative, coming pretty much as a joint project with Russian-owned community site LiveJournal. Their new “Independent Minds” site hosts several new correspondents’ blogs on livejournal.com but, like MyTelegraph before it, encourages readers to sign up to write their own journals. Both aspects are a darned sight slicker than Independent.co.uk’s previous, limited blog effort.

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This way, The Indie doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel for its blogging play and LiveJournal gets to benefit from an influx of intelligent new UK commentary. LiveJournal already powers commentary facilities for Russia’s Kommersant business daily and is looking for crossovers with the Gazeta.ru news site its parent Sup bought recently. The Independent and LiveJournal previously teamed on a partnership that was every bit as equitable - Indie reporters posted questions that were answered by US election voters and re-used in print.