Culled from CJR’s frequently updated “Must-reads from around the Web,” our staff recommendations for the best pieces of journalism (and other miscellany) on the Internet, here are your can’t-miss must-reads of the past week:
A day in the life of a freelance journalist, 2013 — “We unfortunately can’t pay you for it, but we do reach 13 million readers a month”
The problem with online freelance journalism — “Digital journalism isn’t really about writing, any more … it’s more about reading, and aggregating, and working in teams”
A day in the life of a digital editor, 2013 — An editor at the Atlantic responds to Nate Thayer’s post on freelancing
How much should a writer be paid, if anything — A conversation about the economics of journalism in the digital era
Nora Ephron’s final act — The late writer/director’s son, Jacob Bernstein, remembers his mother’s last days
The Sheryl Sandberg backlash — “What felt wrong was not that Sheryl Sandberg was being criticized … but that normally thoughtful writers issued such damning verdicts on a book they had not even bothered to read”
Payola scandal involving a wide range of American media — Outlets from Huffington Post to National Review carried pieces financed by the Malaysian government
The growth of newspapers across the US, 1690-2011 — This data visualization plots over 140,000 newspapers published over three centuries in the United States
How Disney bought Lucasfilm—and its plans for Star Wars — Iger was impressed by Lucas’s skills. “He just has this way of carrying that light saber,” Iger recalls. “He was more adept at using it than me”
