We think we finally beat Steve Rubel on a Rubel-kinda story:

PRWeek is launching staff-written blogs, free to all, next Thursday.

Julia Hood, editor-in-chief of the pub, gave us the scoop in an e-mail interview we just conducted with her. Quoth Julia:

The publishing world is wrestling with striking the right balance between “free” and “paid” content. It is an ongoing topic for discussion here too. But I can tell you — and let the blogosphere break this story! — that PRWeek will on September 28th be launching free blogs. The primary blog will be populated by our entire editorial team, giving our audience a chance to get to know the reporters, editors, production and art editors in a new way.

We did not rush to blogging, as many of our critics have noted, but there were a number of reasons for that delay. First, we wanted to make sure that our website was strong in its own right, following our relaunch. Second, while we were tempted to enter the blogging fray early on, we wanted to make sure the blog added value to our content, rather than simply regurgitating what we do in print and online already.

What we realized is that blogging has a role to play as a natural extension to our current reporting, giving our editorial team an opportunity to have a dialogue on issues that might not ever get reported elsewhere, but still influence PR and marketing. Finally, I wanted to make sure the industry could really use another blog. I truly believe we can bring more to the industry through the blog platform, and it won’t just be a vanity project.

Take THAT, Steve! Yessss!