Fanfare for the Comma Man | Ben Yagoda, New York Times

Yagoda writes:

I said earlier that personal preference and style play a big role in punctuation use, and this applies to some aspects of comma-by-sound. A modifying or transitional phrase at the beginning of a sentence can be followed by a comma or not, depending on your personal style, the meaning of the particular sentence and the length of the phrase.

But he emphasizes later that the "house style" of a particular publication [as well as the house style of a particular company or organisation] also dictates the preferred uses of the comma.