Is it bank time for blogs? Time-Warner’s AOL division bought Weblogs Inc. today for $25 million, signifying that there’s money in this pajama-wearing pursuit.

Purely by coincidence, a blogging acquaintence of mine (who shall remain nameless) mentioned that they’d gotten a buyout offer for their online home recently. So the money’s coming from all over, it seems. (For the record, I haven’t had one come my way in months — not that I’m totally averse…)

AOL’s move marks a significant shift in the business of blogging. Consider: Before this, the biggest deals in the world of blogging involved blogging services, e.g. Google’s purchase of Blogger, News Corp.’s acquisition of MySpace. That involved the nuts-and-bolts of blogging — the Web hosting and interface software — which was considered to be the viable assets in the mix. But the Weblogs deal was based upon the value of the content being produced. In essence, the blog posts are what are being bought — that, and the audience they bring in, the brands they represent, and the advertising they pull in. It’s an epiphany moment. It’s the equivalent of the printed page being worth more than the printing press, and signals a maturation of the medium.

Will AOL’s acquisition signal a land rush? Sorta. Especially when you consider that it’s a cheap pickup, compared to other media properties (more reaction to the deal here). Jason Calacanis set the bar pretty low for an established blog-publishing network/house. But the lack of centralization in the field hampers any big-time M&A activity. I’d expect a minor flurry of deals for individual blogs, but it’ll pass quickly.

The question is, can well-known personally-oriented blogs retain their street cred as a division of a larger media company? Imagine, say, Instapundit functioning as a division of News Corp.; even with someone else taking over the blogging duties, but retaining the brand.

The ultimate object is to buy up blogs as advertising vehicles. If advertisers are really migrating online and away from print and broadcasting, it makes sense to stake out territory online while the cost of entry is low.

It’s one more step in the evolution of blogs as a medium (versus a format). I’ll be interested to see it all play out over the next six months.