The Web footprint

Less than two days after losing my job, this blog was flowing inside the tubes of Internet. With the ability to write, but nowhere to write, it gave me the ability to share my feelings about the newspaper industry and other topics. Apparently, I wasn't alone, as a New York Times op-ed pointed out this weekend. They took the words right out of my, well, blog...

Have keyboard, will travel

By SHEELAH KOLHATKAR
NY Times Op-Ed
Feb. 20, 2009

You can tell when a print journalist has lost his full-time job because of the digital markings that suddenly appear, like the tail of a fading comet. First, he joins Facebook. A Gmail address is promptly obtained. The Twitter account comes next, followed by the inevitable blog. Throw in a LinkedIn profile for good measure. This online coming-out is the first step in a daunting, and economically discouraging, transformation: from a member of a large institution to a would-be Internet “brand.”

Dozens of Web sites have correspondingly sprouted up, posting articles written for free or for a fraction of what a traditional magazine would have paid. Into this gaping maw have rushed enough authors to fill a hundred Roman Colosseums, all eager to write in exchange for “exposure.” Paul Smalera, a 29-year-old who was laid off from a magazine job in November 2008, is now competing with every one of them. And after months of furious blogging, tweeting and writing for Web sites, Paul has made a career of Internet journalism, sort of.

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