Oh, I had one of those. If they’d told me that in the interview, I would have stopped right there. But they didn’t tell me until I handed in my first piece. So that was also my last piece for them.

I worked for one of those, Paula. I didn’t realize until I tried using another source. That’s when they pulled me back.

At the moment, I write articles that include advertisers only. I’m okay with it because the magazine is not operating solely on that model, but rather it runs one article a month in which advertisers get to give useful advice (no self-promotion allowed) on a line of business. To me, that’s perfectly okay. I get paid extra for it, and the articles are not promotions.

YES. I had one instance in which an advertiser treated me like the office lackey once I’d interviewed his expert. He kept repeating “Just let me know when you intend to send over the review copy of the article.” The explosion once he found out it wasn’t happening was colossal. Several ignored phone calls later, he went to my boss (who backed me) and then my publisher (who saw dollar signs). He got to review it, but I refused to send it to him. Someone else did. I still feel icky about it.

Oh, that makes my skin crawl too, Krista. I guess it’s a niche for someone else!

Yeah. I don’t write for them anymore.