Jason Calacanis’ Weblogs Inc as come under an extraordinary attack in the New Zealand newspaper the National Business Review (think WSJ but in NZ).

In an article covering the scoop by lead Weblogsinc gadget site Engadget in obtaining an interview with Bill Gates, author Francis Till attacks Engadget as being “published as part of a ‘network’ of websites configured to look like blogs”. It continues “A masthead staff of 17 is headed by well-known internet writer Peter Rojas, who claims the title of editor-in-chief and content is broken down into sections. If that sounds like a magazine, it should. Although it looks like a blog and acts like a blog, Engadget is a webzine (web-based magazine) dressed up like a blog.”

The attack then shifts to Weblogsinc: “what’s really on display here is a modified version of About.com, especially in its early incarnation as The Mining Company.”

Nick Denton gets a mention for good measure with a reference to him as a startup partner in Weblogsinc (ed note: hadn’t heard this before) who has gone onto “Gawker Media, which is unrepentantly a collection of webzines using blogging tools and formats.

The rest of the article is filled up with some really light analysis on the advertising model backing the sites and so general rants against blogging in general.