We revisit 14 content sites to take the pulse of today’s freelance market This column appeared April 27, 2001, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. Two short years ago, we were partying away, Gatsby-like, in the Golden Age of Web Freelancing, a time when dozens of spry Internet startups with an insatiable hunger for content opened their fat wallets and showered talented young writers, editors and artists with bylines, beaucoup bucks and long overdue respect. OJR heralded the Golden Age in a two-part series detailing freelance opportunities at seven top content sites and at seven more Web wonders — a sampling of 14 sites whose world view promised to overthrow the old order and

Pulitzer takes a two-tiered approach in St. Louis with STLtoday.com This column appeared March 22, 2001, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. Pulitzer Inc. threw the switch March 15, 2001, on STLtoday.com, a new portal that bills itself as the definitive online guide to living in St. Louis. It’s bright, colorful and slickly packaged. Now only if it had a soul. As part of Pulitzer’s new portal strategy, its flagship paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, takes a seat far to the rear of the bus. It’s an interesting approach, one that bears watching for other publications in mid-sized markets. Online staffers at the Post-Dispatch update the portal with breaking news, but they’re only peripherally

This column appeared March 8, 2001, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. ‘Sponsored content” on the Web comes in different shapes and flavors. At some online publications, like Slate, Salon, iVillage and ESPN.com, clicking on a “sponsor” link transports the user to another site or to a co-branded page paid for by an advertiser or hosted by a strategic partner. Other sites, like Women.com and BabyCenter, publish special features pages hosted on their own servers.

Gleaning lessons from the shakeout, as hard cash replaces high concept This column appeared Jan. 25, 2001, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. All the rumblings on the new media landscape over the past few weeks have made online journalists and Internet executives understandably skittish. Layoffs at CNN.com, New York Times Digital, Salon, KnightRidder.com, latimes.com, NBC and elsewhere have raised the specter of a massive retreat from new media. A closer look suggests that external factors played a role in most of these decisions: the News Corp., for example, needs cash to make a play for DirecTV; CNN’s cutbacks were dictated by the merger of America Online and Time Warner. To be sure, there

Numbers never added up for Fox’s brand of online news This column appeared Jan. 5, 2001, in the Online Journalism Review.  Here’s the version on the OJR site. On the same day word came that the News Corp. was shuttering its online division — effectively gutting its online news and sports operations — Web users who surfed over to FoxNews.com could read about a reported sighting of the escapees from a Texas prison. Or they could read the off-lead piece, which foxnews.com’s editors deemed the second most newsworthy item of the day: “Tempest in a D-Cup: Jenna Franklin had something BIG in mind for her 16th birthday, but now the plastic surgeon says no.” That recipe — a dollop of

This column appeared Dec. 16, 2000, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. Is broadband news ready for prime time? Not entirely, but it’s getting there fast. Multimedia journalists who assembled recently at CNET in San Francisco for a panel discussion on broadband seemed to collectively say: We’ve come a long way, we’ve got a long way to go, but today — right now — many online content sites are serving up a richer, more satisfying news experience for consumers. Michael Silberman, executive editor of MSNBC.com, observed that on election night, fully 20 percent of the site’s 5.5 million visitors went to a video page to watch a video stream of election coverage, such as