The Washington Post | USA Today | D1scourse.com
Patrick Stevens got all 68 teams in the NCAA tournament correct while working part-time for USA Today and is the reporter University of Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon turns to for the first question at every press conference. He writes about sports on his own site, D1scourse.com. But he can't translate all that to a full-time gig, Dan Steinberg writes: Stevens was laid off twice by the Washington Times, once in 2009, again in 2012.

Since then, his work has been largely self-generated, Steinberg writes:

Although he was consumed by bubble watches and bracket modifications last week, he still went to the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, believing the visibility couldn’t hurt.

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The Atlantic | Esquire | Emily Hauser | Forbes | Salon
The recent dustup between Nate Thayer and The Atlantic concerning payment (or lack thereof) for freelance writers has highlighted a fact obvious to many working in newsrooms across all platforms: Writers, as a profession, don't make very much, especially considering the volume of work they perform on any given project.

Charles Pierce said as much in a post for Esquire last week, chastising the Washington Post's Ezra Klein for writing that much of the quality copy for news organizations is already being written for free by professionals who aren't journalists, but rather "academics and business consultants and market analysts and former politicians."

These sources, Klein argues, "have the expertise that makes editors -- and readers -- trust them." This is a defensible position, Klein argues, because most journalists are simply repackaging their sources' point of view, and the sources aren't paid for their contributions. (more...)

Nate Thayer | James Bennet Editor-in-Chief James Bennet would like you to know this recent dustup -- over asking a freelancer to provide free Web content -- isn't how The Atlantic normally operates.

Freelance writer Nate Thayer posted to his blog Monday an email exchange between himself and an Atlantic editor, who wanted to see if Thayer would "repurpose" a recent article into a shorter version for the Atlantic website. For free.

Atlantic editor Olga Khazan wrote, in part: "We unfortunately can’t pay you for it, but we do reach 13 million readers a month. ... I am out of freelance money right now, I enjoyed your post, and I thought you’d be willing to summarize it for posting for a wider audience without doing any additional legwork. Some journalists use our platform as a way to gain more exposure."

Thayer stridently refused: "I have bills to pay and cannot expect to do so by giving my work away for free to a for profit company so they can make money off of my efforts. ... Frankly, I will refrain from being insulted and am perplexed how one can expect to try to retain quality professional services without compensating for them." (more...)

O'Reilly Radar | GigaOM
Atlantic freelancer Marc Herman says his $1.99 Kindle Single, "The Shores of Tripoli," is selling well enough to cover the costs of his reporting trip to Libya and may bring in enough to fund his next project in advance. "If things keep going how they are going," he tells Jenn Webb, "I think in a few months I'll be able to say I have the beginnings of a viable business model as well as a viable way to bring long-form reporting about international events to the public." The Radar interview has insights on the pricing dilemma, the writing process and the traditional publishing industry. Mathew Ingram analyzes what Amazon can do for authors and journalists. || Earlier: In the year of the e-book, 5 lessons from — and for — news organizations (Poynter.org)

The Salt Lake Tribune | The Associated Press
A Utah mayor assumed a fake name, Richard Burwash, to write news stories quoting himself in the Deseret News, KSL-TV's website and a community weekly, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder explained that he felt the media was devoting too much coverage to crime and he wanted to offer some good news about his city. The ruse included four published stories over several months until he decided to out himself this week. He told the Tribune: "All of the articles submitted by Richard Burwash were 100 percent truthful, accurate, and verifiable." Except the name, of course.

Romenesko Letters
Barbara Correa says she got an assignment from The Daily about the business implications of Oprah's final program and was offered 75 cents a word. She wrote the story, turned it in and got an acknowledgement from an editor. "That was the last I ever heard from [him]. The man is now MIA. He hasn't responded to repeated phone calls or emails," she writes in a letter to Romenesko. "I understand that in the current environment of media chaos, editors are often left on their own to somehow deliver brilliant, cheap content in the blink of an eye. That means writers sometimes get shuffled around or ignored. I get that. But for an editor of a much-publicized magazine backed by Rupert Murdoch, it seems a bit extreme to make a work for hire assignment and then completely blow off the other party." I emailed The Daily editor for a response and he promised to pay Correa a kill fee.

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Romenesko Misc.
Lauri Lebo of The Newspaper Guild writes me: "The Guild is conducting a survey to get a feel of how freelancers are faring today. Does it suck? Not so bad? Doing terrific, thank you very much? We are seeking important feedback from people about ways organized labor could help improve the state of freelancing, whether it be print, video, blogging or photography." The union is asking freelancers to fill out its survey so it can use the results "to build a support system for those who remain committed to acts of journalism without the assurance of a steady paycheck."