One interesting thing that I’ve been noticing recently is that more and more bloggers are abandoning the traditional blog format (one main column+sidebar(s), like the one that you’re reading) in favor of putting multiple streams of information up on their page.
For example, Choire Sicha’s latest redesign is a three-column format: photographs on the left, links to clips in the middle, and then assorting jottings on the right. Andrew Krucoff’s Other Page is a straighforward two-column design with completely different content in each column (it looks like the traditional blogging material is on the left and more music-oriented stuff is on the right). Heather Champ is primarily a photoblogger, but she breaks up her non-photo content into three sections: conventional slice-of-life blogging, highlights from around the web, and a more-or-less traditional sidebar.
This kind of content segregation is a natural outgrowth of people developing linkblogs in their sidebars (The Food Section has a great linkblog devoted to food-related news). I think that we’ll be seeing more and more of this kind of thing in the future, but I don’t think that it’ll come to be the default setup for blogs. For one thing, you have to know how you want to divide up your content, and you really don’t know how your content is going to break down until you have a lot of content to analyze (obvious exceptions would be multi-author blogs (this one is an obvious candidate, and it looks like they need a redesign anyway) or high-concept blogs).
And then, of course, there’s the problem of generating enough material to keep all your assorted content streams stocked with fresh material…
I love that you called "low culture" "high concept." Brilliant!
I'm working on a redesign now, but it's more along the lines of better menu/navigation as opposed to the breaking out of content. At most, I'm considering a linkblog for remaindered links but I haven't worked that out yet.
Thanks though for the various examples. Will definitely check them out.