More evidence that the recession is winding down: writers and editors are on the move.

Last year was all about hunkering down, sticking with what you were doing, or taking the gigs you were offered even though they might not be your long-term dream assignments.

But in the past few weeks, I’m hearing from writers, editors and publishers who’re making major moves, all of them positive:

• An editor friend got the offer of a lifetime to run a new nonprofit news daily covering a major metropolitan area.
• An author, blogger and ex-newspaper editor got an offer to run a start up being launched by a major magazine company.
• A former daily newspaper business reporter and editor who’d gone to work for a college communication department after being downsized landed a job at the same start up.
• A West Coast media company is looking to full a junior-level website editor and production position on the East Coast as work for their clients there grows.
• A Rocky Mountain area freelance writer and editor reports being crazy busy with assignments, including a series she pitched to a national business publication.
• A Midwest freelance writer is beginning a publicity project for a well-known media training company

I know it’s only anecdotal, but it’s good news all the same.

One more thing: although I don’t know the particulars of every situation, I do know that for the most part, this work didn’t just fall out of the sky for these people. It happened because even while opportunities were frozen solid they were preparing for the day things would start to thaw. How? By staying in touch with their contacts, present and past. By working their virtual and real-word networks. By tinkering with side projects to learn new skills, even if those endeavors didn’t bring in any income.

What’s your good news? Is your business picking up? Are you seeing cracks in the ice? And if so, what did you do to make them happen?

The no. 1 reason editors don’t respond to writers right away is because they’re too busy juggling the many other demands of their jobs.

That’s what I found when I started a freelance editing gig, and what I heard from other editors after I wrote that post on the subject not long ago.

So, one freelancer wrote in after reading the post, is there anything that would get an editor to respond to me right away?

Good question. I asked some editor friends for their opinions on what it takes to get them to reply immediately to a writer’s letter of introduction, pitch or completed manuscript.

One says the best way to get a fast response from her is to have a killer story pitch, one “that’s so perfectly honed to the editor’s needs it’s irresistible.” Unfortunately, she doesn’t encounter those very often. “Pitches like that are like snow leopards: hard to spot and in danger of extinction,” she says. “But I get them from time to time, usually from people….who completely understand what the publication needs, and with whom I’ve already had discussions that narrow the topic range.”

Fast Cash Freelance addressed the same topic in this recent post, saying it takes more than a good idea for an editor to bite. According to the post, writers are most likely to hear back from editors if they have access to hard-to-reach sources (think celebrities or CEOs), expertise or first-hand knowledge of a particular topic, or can demonstrate their ability to do tough research to back up a pitch. Dependability, clever word crafting, speed and a contrarian streak aren’t bad either.

In the recent past, I’ve had editors say “yes” to pitches in less than 24 hours on several occasions. Once I started following a high-profile management expert and business columnist on Twitter right before the pub date of her latest business book. After she followed me back, I introduced myself and inquired whether she’d make herself available for an interview about the book and herself. When she said yes, I immediately pitched a Q&A to an editor at a business publication I’d started to write for, and got a yes within a day.

Another time I started following a publisher on Twitter, she followed me back, and based on something I’d seen her tweet, I asked if she’d be interested in a pitch on a related subject. She said yes and DM’d me the name and email of an editor to pitch. I sent a query the same day, and wound up with an assignment less than 24 hours later.

There’s something to be said with being in the right place at the right time, or responding quickly when you get even the smallest opening. But that only works if you understand the publication you’re pitching to, or the subject matter, or preferably both. In other words, do your homework. Then follow through by filing your story on time and error free – so the next time that editor sees an email with your name on it in their inbox, they’ll make the time to look at it and reply right away.

It was the year reporters and editors said goodbye to thousands of staff jobs at newspapers and magazines that downsized or folded.

It was the year conferences went digital, Twitter went viral and the bad economy made every writer a business reporter.

It was the year phrases like hyperlocal, meetup and content aggregators entered freelancers’ lexicon.

It was the year of the mobile app, the multimedia story, SEO tags and crowdsourcing.

It’s only fitting that as we say goodbye to 2009, and with it the first decade of the 21st century, we also bid farewell to journalism practices of yesterday and embraces those of the future as the media business leaves print behind (more or less) for an online-only world and all the changes, risks and opportunities that come with it.

With that in mind, here are my picks for the top media trends of last year, and what they mean for independent writers in 2010:

Content aggregators – They’ve been called mills, farms, and in one case even demonic. I’ll stick with the more neutral-sounding content aggregators to describe sites such as Demand Studios, Associated Content, Helium, and possibly AOL’s new Seed.com. All those sites are hiring freelancers to churn out thousands of SEO-enabled how-to pieces and other “articles” a day in hopes the information will show up high in Google search rankings thereby maximizing the proprietors’ online advertising earnings. The debate over the opportunity these sites present for freelance writers has raged on here and on other freelance blogs for the better part of the year, and media industry heavyweights have weighing in with their (mostly) negative opinions.
Takeaway for freelancers: Content aggregators are here to stay, at least for the short term – although recent changes Google’s made to its search algorithm could affect them in the long run. Also here to stay are a contingent of writers happy for the query-free gigs these sites offer, even if the rates they pay are pitifully low when calculated on a piece-by-piece basis. I remain unconvinced of the merit of doing this type of work, though understand its attraction to someone breaking into the freelance business or with limited time or desire to pitch stories.

Hyperlocal – From the everything-old-is-new-again department. Never have so many been so interested in what’s happening in your Zip Code, your voting precinct, your city block or rural postal route. They are to the news business what nanotechnology is to the tech industry. From biggies like MSNBC, AOL and Examiner.com’s billionaire owner Philip Anschutz to tiny startups, hyperlocal is everywhere. According to Knight Citizen News Network, journalists and hobbyists have started more than 800 hyperlocal sites to date. But will they last? Some are already shutting down. The cofounders of one ambitious southern California hyperlocal project – both long-time journalists – opted to shutter their site at the end of 2009 despite accolades, ads and a partnership with their area’s major metro daily. Why? They couldn’t scale the business to make it profitable without taking on more employees – and the cost that comes with them – a step they were unwilling to take.
Takeaway for freelancers: Hyperlocal remains a viable alternative to working for content aggregators. But like aggregators they don’t pay much. Treat it like the experiment it is. Include work for hyperlocal sites in a broader assignment mix so if a venture goes under you’re not stuck. Or if you go on staff, treat it like a stint at a community newspaper – which is basically what it is – and gauge how long you’re willing to stay for the experience and clips you’ll gain. If you’re interested in starting one of these on your own, you can apply for one of 9 grants of $25,000 each that American University’s J-Lab is awarding for community news sites this year. Applications are due March 1.l

Nonprofit news – This year, everybody who wasn’t busy creating a hyperlocal news site was putting together a 501c3 to start a nonprofit news venture (actually, some were one and the same). According to popular thinking, if nobody’s making money from advertising anymore, why bother, just start out as a nonprofit and hunt for financing through grants, corporate sponsorships, subscriptions and donations. So far it’s working for sites such as MinnPost, Voice of San Diego and ProPublica, which have raised hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars respectively. The bigger question: whether it’s a model that dozens, or hundreds of other ventures can successfully duplicate, similar to the country’s public radio stations. As a matter of fact, don’t rule out the country’s public radio stations as a source of nonprofit news innovation, as stations such as Oregon Public Broadcasting are busy working to expand their coverage areas and the news they dish up on their websites.
Takeaway for freelancers: Nonprofits aren’t the backwater they used to be, especially if an organization is savvy or lucky enough to get backed by Knight Digital Media or another source of major grant funding. Most of these enterprises are being started by ex-newspaper or magazine journalists – meaning if you write for them you’re more likely to get high-quality editing, always good for the clips file.

User generated content – Where to begin. User-generated content is old news if you think of it in terms of YouTube and Facebook. But it’s catching on in new ways. For example, in a different type of user-generated content, more companies are choosing to bypass newspapers and magazines and instead of advertising, starting custom publications, especially online. Expect these types of projects to flourish in 2010 (Disclaimer: I started working on one of them not long ago). Is it journalism? Yes, and no. Sponsored content is after all, sponsored content. But some sponsors understand that for their publications to be taken seriously they have to present information that’s reported and presented like the real deal. The more well-known user-generated content trend is of course the reader comments, videos, etc., that more publications are building into what they do. Expect to see newspapers, magazines and websites do even more of this in 2010.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you don’t already do work for custom publications, now’s the time to look into it. Don’t think you have to pitch publishers of custom publications for the work. If you’ve written for corporate clients in the past, why not pitch them on a news site, or even an e-newsletter. Another options: introducing yourself to one of the growing crop of digital media agencies that produce online-only custom publications. As for the other kind of user-generated content – any writer running a blog or specialized social network has to think about ways to maximize reader involvement.

Entrepreneurship - With so many journalists getting laid off, it was inevitable some would go into business for themselves. Unlike long-time solo writers – such as yours truly – these reporters and editors don’t want to identify themselves as “freelancers,” a word that for better or worse still connotes a lower status word worker in some circles. Besides, some portion of these newly unleashed writers are opting to steer their own destinies rather than wait for editors to answer their queries, so calling them entrepreneurial journalists fits. What are these EJs doing? Creating news apps for iPhones and Androids. Working on the hyperlocal and nonprofit news ventures above. Creating technology platforms or providing the training journalists or newspapers need to their jobs better in the future.
The takeaway for freelancers: There’s never been a better time to start something on your own. The tools are abundant and free or close to it.  In cities such as Portland and New York, it’s relatively easy to find coworking spaces dedicated to writers or start ups or both. There’s also a wealth of information online and

Twitter - At the start of the year Twitter was still Facebook’s little brother, a circus sideshow fun for goofing off on but not really anything you could use for business. At least that was the perception. But as the year wore on and more publications and writers opened accounts, it became apparent Twitter could be used not just to research stories but tell them too. Dan Baum drove this point home when he took to Twitter to tell his tale of being fired from The New Yorker. If that wasn’t enough, there was always coverage of the plane landing in the Hudson, the Iranian election protests and Michael Jackson’s death to convince you Twitter had arrived as a news source.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you haven’t hopped on Twitter yet, now’s the time. Don’t worry about how you’ll use it, at least not at first. Give yourself some time to play around with it and see how things work. Then come up with a plan that fits into your writing business. You read more of my advice on how writers can use Twitter on this blog post and this one.

Other trends: the wave of online-only startup publications on all matter of subjects will increase; blogging will remain big; more publications and writers will experiment with mobile apps; and writers will see publications’ freelance budgets increase, though not all will return to pre-2008 levels.

Got your own picks for the major media industry trends of the past year?

I’m still here.

I’m still looking at traffic stats.

I’m still reading comments, and sometimes even replying.

I’m still thinking of blog posts.

But that’s just it. I’ve been so busy lately with my editing day job the only thing related to this blog I’ve been doing is thinking.

I’m too pooped to post.

The editing job should settle down a bit over the Christmas holidays. When it does and I have some more time, here are the posts you’ll see from me:

• In praise of the nut graph – small, powerful, elusive and 100 percent unavoidable – why are you so hard to master?
• I love writers who… – a 180 from a post I wrote awhile back on the editors that writers love. Based on the last month, I have much to say on this subject.
• 2009: a freelance writing year in review – a horror story with a happy ending.
  
• Digital media trendsetters to watch in 2010 – The usual suspects, plus a few surprise picks.
• To incorporate or not to incorporate – That is the question to ask your accountant.
• A media incubator wish list – Portland freelance journalists are huddling this week to continue plans for a coworking space dedicated to indie writers. If you were going to design your dream shared newsroom, what would be in it? If you’re already working in such an environment, what do you love about it, and what do you hate?

Readers, which of those subjects should I tackle first? If there’s something else you’d like to read on WordCount in coming weeks let me know.

Now that I’ve had a taste of the editor’s life, I have a better idea of why many don’t respond right away to freelancers’ letters of introduction, queries, follow up emails and submitted manuscripts. The secret: it rarely has anything to do with the writer. Read on.

The top 25 reasons editors don’t get back to you faster:

1. They’re in a meeting.

2. They’re working on next year’s editorial calendar, which is late, and they still haven’t quite figured out what stories they’re doing when.

3. They’re in the run up to a day-long webinar for 3,000 subscribers the publication is hosting and haven’t thought of anything else for days.

4. They’re at a publishing industry convention figuring out how to do more with less.

5. They’re covering a convention.

6. They’re in another meeting.

7. They’re flying to a meeting.

8. They’re editing stories that have to go up on the site tomorrow.

9. Their 2010 budget is due and they’re figuring out how they can get by without having to cut freelance rates or lay someone off.

10. They’re unorganized.

11. They read your story/pitch/letter of introduction and are still trying to figure out where you or it could fit into the general scheme of things.

12. They read your story/pitch/letter of introduction and are still trying to figure out how to politely tell you thanks but no thanks.

13. They read your story/pitch/letter of introduction and are still trying to figure out how to tell you that you or it are fantastic but due to budget cuts they’re only paying 25 cents/word right now.

14. They’re getting fired, quitting or getting downsized out of a job.

15. They’re working on the editorial plan for a spin-off publication the publisher asked them to take on in addition to their regular responsibilities.

16. They’re working a column/letter from the editor/feature story and have locked themselves in a room with no phone or Internet access because it’s the only way they’ll ever get any writing done.

17. They’re hosting an editorial roundtable with industry bigwigs for their publications’ annual CEO perspective issue.

18. They’re in a day-long session with the publication’s market research team plotting out what reader surveys they need to do next year and how much it’ll cost.

19. They’re in bluelines.

20. They’re blogging.

21. They’re planning the company Christmas party.

22. They’re planning where they’re going to go over Christmas break.

23. They’re decluttering/cleaning/organizing their office.

24. They’re interviewing candidates for next semester’s internships.

25. They’re in, you guessed it, another meeting.

As I step away from the keyboard to spend the next four days on feasting and football, family and friends, I’ve been thinking about how much I have to be grateful for.

It’s true 2009 will go down as one of the most godawful years the modern media business has ever seen.

Even so, for me it could have been a lot worse. And as 2009 shinnies up to 2010, things are definitely looking up.

So, here are the 10 things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving:

1. The editors I work with on a regular basis – Carroll, Elizabeth and Jonathan especially – for being good role models as I discover whether the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.

2. The editors who took a chance on me – There were more than a few of them this year, as I hustled to make up for work lost when regular clients cut their budgets by pitching magazines, online news outlets and other publications I hadn’t written for before. Some new assignments worked out beautifully, others not so much. But I learned from all of them.

3. The media community in the city where I live - As the ongoing commentary in the wake of last weekend’s WeMaketheMedia conference proves, media people in Portland are earnest and passionate about what they do, and where and how they’ll do it in the future. It’s not just me. Ask Bill Lascher – coming up from Los Angeles for the conference sealed his decision to move here. Welcome Bill.

4. The Online News Association – If you hadn’t held your annual conference in San Francisco, I couldn’t have afforded the time or $$$ to go. But you did, and I did, and got to spend three days learning new stuff and meeting old friends, a winning combination of ever there was one.

5. My family – You tease nag me over the time I spend on Twitter, LinkedIn and my blog. But you’ve been behind me 100 percent as I’ve jumped into this or that new venture, even if it’s meant more work around the old homestead on your part (next year, maybe you’ll even do that part without grumbling – then I’ll really have something to be thankful for).

6. Ron Doyle, my website designer – The inspired mind behind WordCount’s facelift – making me just as proud of the blog’s design as the words I stuff into it.

7. Old Faithful – You give me a few scares this year, and you’re slowing down in your old age, but you still boot up every morning and haven’t crashed in who knows how long. Hang in there, we’ll get a new hard drive in you yet.

8. Twitter - I fulfilled one of my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions to do more public speaking thanks to the Twitter follower who broadcast about a friend of a friend needing a speaker for an upcoming event, then retweeting my reply that I was ready, willing and available. Since then once’s thing’s led to another and I’ve given talks to groups big and small on writing, hyperlocal news, digital journalism and social media – and had a blast doing it.

9. My writer friends – Even though I some of you I know only virtually, you’ve there whenever I need another writer’s perspective on something, or just to hang out with when I’m avoiding a rewrite.

10. You – the readers of this blog. You’ve prodded me to write about things I never would have thought of on my own and in the process helped make this endeavor bigger and more successful than I’d ever dreamed.

This Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?

Have you ever been so busy, so overloaded with things that have to get done right now you didn’t know where to start?

I’ve been feeling like that as I wrap up some assignments I’ve had on the books for a while, take on a gigantic new one, and at the same time, juggle a stream of requests to do presentations, take part in panel discussions or give interviews.

It would be easy to turn down the latter because it’s not all paid work. But I’ve spent a lot of time in the last year immersing myself in all things social media and talking about the future of journalism, so I don’t want to pass up those opportunities just when my marketing efforts are starting to pay off.

So how do I prioritize what’s becoming a longer and crazier work week?

It’s not just me. As the economy picks up more freelancers are getting offers of new projects, and after what the recession did to our business this year, nobody has the heart to say no to work. So we’re all in the same busy boat.

Some writers set a timer and concentrate on one thing until it goes off. Others segment every day into specific parts devoted to different tasks. Freelance writer, author and blogger Leah Ingram is the master of this. Even if you read the Q&A I did with her some months back, it’s worth taking a second look just to see again how she’s able to produce magazine articles, books and a busy blog with aplomb.

I was thinking about all this when I walked into Starbucks recently. I was browsing through the store’s bookshelf waiting for my hot spiced cider when I saw a guide to getting accepted into the Air Force Academy. My high school-aged son is interested in the Air Force Academy, so when my drink arrived I sat down and started reading.

A few chapters in there was a section on what first year cadets can expect – lots of classes, little free time. In fact, according to the guidebook, first years are given too much to do on purpose, so they learn to figure out what’s most important. The thinking is that when they’re in combat situations they’ll always have too much to do and will have to be able to prioritize in an instant.

I couldn’t help draw parallels to how freelance writers and other self-employed people operate. We always have too much to do. The trick is to figure out which things demand your attention right now and do those first.

That’s sometimes easier said than done, especially when you have conflicting high priority tasks.

Lately I’ve put all my work and non-work to-dos into one big weekly list and picked off the stuff that’s feels most important first and let the rest sit there. Some things roll over week to week because they’re not that critical. I almost always have 10 to 15 low-priority items waiting to get taken care of (we will replace the ugly green couch in the family room some day, right after I file the piles of papers sitting in my office and hang the pictures we took down when we painted last February). When it’s the end of the day or a weekend and I’ve finished a big project but still have work time to burn, I try to knock a few off the list.

I’m also a firm believer in outsourcing household or work-related tasks to clear the decks for work. I use a travel agent to book business trips. I pay for house cleaners, a yard crew and to have groceries delivered.  I minimize routine chores by grouping them together once a day or once a week.

Still, there are times when even the best time-saving tricks aren’t enough.

So I’m asking: if your schedule’s gotten busier, how do you handle it? How do you prioritize?

Since I undertook the big WordCount redesign there’s been a big “Coming Soon” sign on the page marked Best of WordCount.

No more.

As of today, the Best of WordCount is home to 30+ of this blog’s most well-read posts conveniently sharing the same page. Call it the WordCount Collector’s Edition. Or my WordCount greatest hits -get it, hits?

Whatever you call it, take a look.

You’ll see posts on writing, running a freelance business, why writers should blog, social network tools for writers and how the Internet is changing the media industry and what that means for freelancers journalist entrepeneurs.

If there’s a subject you’ve been dying to see me cover here, please feel free to let me know.

Scenes from a work day:

9 a.m. First call of day, with a trade magazine editor and old friend. Talk shop. Go over pitches for business features I sent earlier. Settle on a few, plus a special report story package. Discuss terms. Schedule due dates. I am a contributing editor.

10 a.m. Interview local quasi-celebrity social media expert about Twitter, Facebook, etc., for career piece for new website for women. Fun stuff. Conversation veers to mutual acquaintances, dumb things people do online. Make mental note to interview this source again if possible. I am a career columnist.

11 a.m. Conference call with two web gurus for story for small business tech website. Realize I can only use fraction of their information. Contemplate pitching follow-up piece in order to use leftover material. I am a tech writer.

Noon – Another interview for same tech piece. Hear same things over again, signal story’s ready to write. I’m an old pro.

1 p.m. – Monitor ongoing email discussion with editor, other writers collaborating on stories for new small business website. I am a team player.

2:30 p.m. Get idea for blog post. Dash off post, look up links, preview, change headline, preview again, tinker with headline, preview, make change, preview, make change, preview. Publish. Check stats. Wonder why stats have been lower since switching blog to self-hosted. I am a blogger.

4 p.m. Write social media story for women’s website from morning interview. Channel light and breezy in order to stuff maximum meaning into minimal word count. I am a word-working wonder.

6:30 p.m. Feed dog. Check homework’s done. Make dinner. Do dishes. I am a working parent.

8:30 p.m. Finish final edits on copy going into catalog for youngest son’s upcoming school auction. I am a volunteer copywriter.

9 p.m. – Query editor of tech website with ideas for next month’s assignments. Check email. Check blogs stats. Check Twitter. Check email again. Power down computer.  I am a Type A worker.

You could call what I have freelance multiple personality disorder.

Then again, if you do what I do, you know it’s all in a day’s work.

Care to guess what freelance technology innovation I could not live without?

It’s not Twitter or even Microsoft Outlook – those I use both of them all day, every day.

It’s the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word.

OK, you didn’t have to work very hard to guess that because I put the answer in the title of this post.**

Little old Track Changes. Do you know how hard it would be to do this job without it? It’s the handiest way I know of editing copy when more than one person is working on a document. It’s the shorthand of choice between editors and writers to communicate what’s good and what’s bad in a piece, to ask questions and to make comments.

Yet, not a month goes by where I encounter someone who hasn’t been introduced to it, or worse, refuses to learn.

Just this week, a fellow freelancer complained about a book editor she’s working with who had printed out pages of her manuscript to edit an was going to scan or photocopy the materials to send back to her. Talk about living in the past.

Most full-time professional writers I know are on intimate terms with Track Changes and have been for a long time. The same goes for editors – well, most of them.

But I do a lot of sideline work on marketing and communications projects for nonprofit groups and inevitably helping with one of those I run into someone who’s never heard of Track Changes. Or they know about it but haven’t ever taken the time to figure out to how make it work.

To them and anyone else who still hasn’t figured it out I say, get over yourself. If you don’t understand how to use it, ask someone – heck, ask me. In fact, here’s a straightforward explanation straight from the Microsoft Word website:

Open the document you want to revise.

On the Tools menu, click Track Changes.When the Track Changes feature is enabled, TRK appears on the status bar  at the bottom of your document. When you turn off change tracking, TRK is dimmed.

Make the changes you want by inserting, deleting, or moving text or graphics. You can also change formatting.

If more than one person is editing a document, each person’s suggested edits will appear in a different color, making it easy to track which person is proposing what changes. That’s a handy feature if your editor’s editor likes to go over your copy and make suggestions for changes – don’t you love it when that happens?

We’re in the 21st century. Microsoft Word’s been out in one or another form for more than 20 years. There’s no excuse for not using it. If someone’s still making writers  look at edits in hard copy it isn’t a style thing, or a fear thing, it’s an ego thing.

** I learned the headline writing trick at a Web-writing class I took at the 2009 Online News Association conference. In blog post titles, forget puns and cutesy headlines and stick with keywords related the subject you’re writing about – your posts will show up higher in search engine rankings for that subject.