This morning an editor with a big-name magazine asked me by email if I would write an op-ed for it. When I asked what they paid, he replied, "We can’t pay for content unfortunately," adding, "We’ve actually found someone else to write this in the meantime, so let’s stand down. Hopefully next time!"

There won't be a next time. First, I refuse to contribute free labor to a magazine with a brand as august (or so I assumed) as this one. Second, I don't write "content." The reason is illustrated in the graphic here. (The full-size original accompanied How True Advertising Can Save Journalism From Drowning in a Sea of Content.)

I gather the magazine is also funded entirely by adtech, since Privacy Badger detects an unusually high number of trackers on its index page alone: 81.

The free work I'm glad to do is saving publishing. I want to do that by bringing the incentives of readers, writers, publishers and sponsors into alignment. More about all that in this series here.