I like Countryfile on TV, and I like Countryfile the magazine (I'm a rural chap at heart). Buy it every issue, in fact, and how many magazines can I say that about any more? But I do find their blogs page profoundly depressing. Too many blogs launched in a burst of enthusiasm, and then quickly left to subside into abeyance. And no proper index page of any of the blogs. They sorta look like blogs, but aren't really. Cargo cult blogging.
Competitively speaking, I'm glad so many publishers are still getting the fundamentals of blogging wrong. Personally, I find it disappointing.
What are the principles, Adam?
More than I could summarise in a comment, but something like:
Post regulalrly
Remember that it's a conversation, not just another publishing channel
Give each weblog a clear personality and front page, and make sure each entry has a permalink
And so on and so forth...