You might not have noticed that amid the turmoil of the departure of Judy Woodruff and the looming replacement of the showcase "Inside Politics" with an expanded three hours of Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room," but CNN's attempt to merge old media with new appears to actually be working these days. The "Inside the Blogs" segment, mocked mercilessly in its first weeks, has begun to prove that blogs and TV can mix.

The dynamic (or at least attractive) duo of blog reporter Jacki Schechner and blog producer Abbi Tatton took many lumps early on for their mind-numbingly boring recitation of things published on the web. Now, though, after nearly five months on the job, the segment is maturing into a useful and interesting news resource.

The reason it's working is that Abbi and Jacki have largely stopped reading from blogs. They instead have moved into story-telling, that is, explaining how and where stories are bubbling online and spreading across the blogosphere. In past weeks, they've repeatedly tackled the evolving bro-ha-ha over the Downing Street Memo, Tom Delay, the debate over the Patriot Act, as well as tried to provide some insight into sub-blog worlds like military blogging. They've been tracking the charges and countercharges, points and counterpoints from the right and the left-how something that first popped up on Blog A can be traced forward through to Blogs C & D, and how a news item can percolate for a couple of days before it breaks into a full-fledged blogstorm.

In short, they've stepped back from focusing on a seemingly random smattering of blogs and instead begun to trace what and how the daily meme is spreading. For an audience who still is largely clueless when it comes to blogs, the segment on its best days provides an intriguing glimpse of how stories grow and evolve online.

Other factors are helping too. Abbi, who'd had little time on camera prior to joining the segment in January, has warmed to her leading role (although her sexy accent has had bloggers warm on her since the beginning), and the chemistry and pacing between the duo has been steadily improving.

The IBT segment also now runs twice in the 4 o'clock hour thanks to the expanded 90-minute "Inside Politics"--a longer block around 4:20 and then a short snippet around 4:50, shortly before the end of the show--allowing a bit more time to cover topics of interest.

While the segment still lacks the polish of a produced package, its roughness lends a certain credibility given the subject matter (Blogs ain't exaclty polishd, if you haven't noticed.).

Unfortunately, the shaky camera angles are distracting and lead one mistakenly to think that CNN's Washington studio is afloat in a Force 4 gale. (CNN's D.C. bureau may be in the center of a brewing storm, but it's one that has more to do with Nancy Grace, Wolf Blitzer, and John King than Abbi or Jacki, and shouldn't be reflected in the camera work.)

The biggest problem with the segment still? There's no webpage that pulls together each day's links so readers can follow along at their own leisure. While its final format and placement in "The Situation Room" is still up-in-the-air, CNN would be well-served in the long run to put some resources into having Abbi and Jacki prepare a daily web update, a la Hotline's Blogometer, explaining to the three-quarters of Americans who are still blog novices what's what online.