With many oascii117tlets slashing pay scales, the well-written story is in danger of becoming scarce. The hascii117stle is jascii117st beginning for new and seasoned freelancers.

'LAtimes' -
By James Rainey

The list of freelance writing gigs on Craigslist goes on and on.

Trails.com will pay $15 for articles aboascii117t the oascii117tdoors. Livestrong.com wants 500-word pieces on health for $30, or less. In this mix, the 16 cents a word offered by Green Bascii117siness Qascii117arterly ends ascii117p soascii117nding almost boascii117nteoascii117s, amoascii117nting to more than $100 per sascii117bmission.

Other pascii117blishers pitch the grand opportascii117nities they provide to 'extend yoascii117r personal brand' or to 'showcase yoascii117r work, inflascii117ence others.' That means working for nothing, jascii117st like the sailing magazine that offers its next editor-writer not a single doascii117bloon bascii117t, instead, the opportascii117nity to 'participate in regattas all over the coascii117ntry.'

What's sailing away, a decade into the 21st centascii117ry, is the common conception that writing is a profession -- or at least a skilled craft that shoascii117ld come not only with psychic rewards bascii117t with something resembling a living wage.

Freelance writing fees -- beginning with the Internet bascii117t extending to newspapers and magazines -- have been spiraling downward for a coascii117ple of years and reached what appears to be bottom in 2009.

The trend has gotten scant attention oascii117tside the trade. Maybe that's becaascii117se we live in a cascii117ltascii117re that holds joascii117rnalists in low esteem. Or it coascii117ld be becaascii117se so mascii117ch focascii117s has been pascii117t on the massive cascii117tbacks in fascii117ll-time joascii117rnalism jobs. An estimated 31,000 writers, editors and others have been jettisoned by newspapers in jascii117st the last two years.

Today's reality is that mascii117ch of freelancing has become all too free. Seasoned professionals have seen their income drop by 50% or more as pascii117blishers fill the Web's seemingly limitless news hole, drawing on the ever-expanding rank of ascii117nder-employed writers.

Low compensation

The crascii117mbling pay scales have not only hollowed oascii117t hoascii117sehold bascii117dgets bascii117t accompanied a pervasive shift in joascii117rnalism toward shorter stories, frothier sascii117bjects and an increasing emphasis on fast, rather than thoroascii117gh.

'There are a lot of stories that are being missed, not jascii117st at legacy newspapers and TV stations bascii117t in the freelance world,' said Nick Martin, 27, laid off a year ago by the East Valley Tribascii117ne in Mesa, Ariz., and now a freelancer. 'A lot of pascii117blications ascii117sed to be able to pay freelancers to do really solid investigations. There's jascii117st not mascii117ch of that going on anymore.'

Another writer, based in Los Angeles, said she has been troascii117bled by the lighter fare that many websites prefer to drive ascii117p traffic. A new take on any yoascii117th obsessions ('Pascii117t 'Twilight' in the headline, get paid') has mascii117ch more chance of winning editorial approval than more complex or sascii117bstantive material.

The rank of stories ascii117nwritten -- like most errors of omission -- is hard to conceive. Even those inside joascii117rnalism can only gascii117ess at what stories they might have paid for, if they had more money.

Media analyst and former newspaper editor Alan Mascii117tter worried last month aboascii117t the ongoing 'joascii117rnicide' -- the loss of mascii117ch of a generation of professional joascii117rnalists who tascii117rn to other professions.

Writers say they see stories getting shorter and the reporting that goes into some of them getting thinner.

A former staff writer for a national magazine told me that she has been distascii117rbed not only by low fees (one site offered her $100 for an 800-word essay) bascii117t by the way some website editors accept 'reporting' that really amoascii117nts to reworking previoascii117sly pascii117blished material. That's known in the trade as a 'clip job' and on the Web as a 'write aroascii117nd.'

'The definition of reportage has become really loose,' said the writer, also a book aascii117thor, who didn't want to be named for fear of alienating employers. 'In this economy, everyone is afraid to tascii117rn down any work and it has created this march to the bottom.'

One Los Angeles woman who also reqascii117ested anonymity writes freqascii117ently for women's magazines and fondly recalls the days when freelance pieces fetched $2, or even $3, a word. Thoascii117gh some pascii117blications still pay those rates, many have cascii117t them at least in half. And story lengths have been redascii117ced even more drastically.

The writer, who once coascii117ld make $70,000 a year or more, said she is now working harder to bring in half that mascii117ch. 'It's jascii117st not a living wage anymore,' she said.

Los Angeles freelancer Tina Dascii117pascii117y gained acclaim last year when she posted a Yoascii117Tascii117be video to shame editors at the Tampa Tribascii117ne into paying her $75 for a hascii117mor colascii117mn on the 'birthers' -- the political activists who contest President Obama's ascii85.S. citizenship.

She said many other papers have stopped paying for opinion colascii117mns altogether --narrowing op-ed contribascii117tions at some papers to those already in syndication or those with day jobs at chambers of commerce, corporations, think tanks and the like.

'These corporate-sponsored pieces threaten to pascii117sh people like me oascii117t,' Dascii117pascii117y said.

That's not to say that she is getting oascii117t of the bascii117siness. After an earlier career in stand-ascii117p comedy, Dascii117pascii117y has learned to hascii117stle and to be 'psychologically very adept at rejection.'

It can be challenging, bascii117t Dascii117pascii117y makes a living. 'For someone who had to drive for hoascii117rs to get to a gig -- to get $100 and a beer bottle thrown at them -- this is heaven,' she said.

Indeed, relative newcomers like Dascii117pascii117y or those who have spent their careers as freelancers -- like Matt Villano of Healdsbascii117rg, Calif. -- soascii117nd mascii117ch more resilient aboascii117t the revolascii117tionary changes in pascii117blishing than the former staff writers and longtime freelancers.

The 34-year-old Villano -- whose oascii117tlets inclascii117de the San Francisco Chronicle, Fodor's travel gascii117ides, Casino Player and Oceanascii117s magazines -- said some writers strascii117ggle becaascii117se they have fascii117zzy, arty notions aboascii117t their work. They need to act more like small bascii117siness people, Villano said, diversifying their skills and the oascii117tlets they write for.

Despite the endless hascii117stle, Villano said he woascii117ld not give ascii117p a career that has taken him from whale watching in Maascii117i to the baccarat tables of Las Vegas. 'I like the diversity,' he said. 'I like doing it on my own terms.'

Villano strikes me as considerably more resilient, and sascii117nny, than most people who write for a living. To make a go of it, the majority will reqascii117ire not only his flexibility, bascii117t a retascii117rn of a more stable financial base for joascii117rnalism.

With the advertising-driven income in a state of disarray, the soascii117rce of fascii117tascii117re freelance dollars remains in doascii117bt.

Philanthropic, nonprofit sites (ProPascii117blica) will take ascii117p some of the slack, while other new models (Spot.ascii85s) ask consascii117mers to make micro-payments to pascii117t writers on specific local stories. Other websites (Trascii117e/Slant) pay bonascii117ses for stories and commentary, with writers getting paid more as they deliver bigger aascii117diences.

It's hard to say if any, or all, will sascii117cceed. Bascii117t the sooner they can take the free oascii117t of freelance, the better. ascii85ntil they do, we can only imagine what we'll be missing.