MSN Money cutting freelancer/contractor content

Donna Freedman, who writes for MSN Money’s Smart Spending section, writes on her personal blog that the site is cutting content from freelancers and contractors at the end of this month.

Talking Biz News confirmed those details independently from sources within the news operation. The original content produced by these writers will be replaced by content from partners such as The Wall Street Journal. About 20 journalists were working for MSN Money on a freelance or contract basis, said one source.

Freedman writes, “My time with MSN Money ends as of Sept. 30. Then again, so does everyone else’s. The company underwent some reorganizing and the word came down from on high: ‘MSN Money is not a content company.’

“That’s pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, not the second, as in ‘MSN Money no longer will generate original pieces.’ It will run partner site content (read: free) rather than pay writers for personal finance blogs and articles.

“I always knew this could happen. Every spring when it came time to renew my annual contract I’d get a little jumpy. Lately I’ve felt the same nervousness, a feeling that things were about to change. So when my boss e-mailed this morning asking if I had time for a phone call, it was like having the doctor say ‘We need to discuss your lab results.'”

Read more here.

A list of MSN Money contributing writers can be found here. Contributors have included personal finance journalists Kathy Kristof and Liz Pulliam Weston, as well as markets columnist Charley Blaine.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.