Magazines and blogs: friends or foes?

Blogs are odd beasts. I mean, they are often just a form of editorial, an 'op ed' item or a column, to use a slightly more traditional term.
They are like a magazine column without the magazine itself! They are also frequently cited as one of the main suspects in the decline of the print side of magazine publishing.
But can this format be used to enhance a magazine title's presence in the market, both for readers and for advertisers? These are the sorts of questions publishers are - or should be - asking themselves: should blogs form an important part of a magazine brand's online presence? How about in print... Can they be integrated into polite print society, or are they irredeemably gauche?
On the technical side, there's not a lot that needs to be done. Integrating a blog into a mag's web site is child's play and obviously will help promote reader interaction.
For blogging into print, scheduling becomes an issue. Do you hold back blog article release dates so print readers aren't getting it many weeks after the online readers? What about comments? Should these be encouraged and included in print in some way? Again, scheduling is the key here.
Another question sometimes asked is whether blogs are important to magazines. Are they worth the effort? The answer to this lies in what sets blogs apart from print publication columns and editorials:

1) they are open to all; anyone can blog. It is a highly democratic medium.
2) Readers can (usually) leave their own comments for others to read.

1 + 2 = boom! Viral marketing.

And in these trying times when finding the RIGHT new readers is even more important than basic readership boosting, viral marketing is a great way to gain and keep specific reader attention.