Web-only news awards watch – The Pulitzer Prizes, the Oscars of the journalism business, will be announced on Monday and for the first time Web-only publications are eligible. According to this Editor&Publisher article, at least five online news organizations submitted entries in the Web news category: the St. Louis Beacon, Voice of San Diego, MinnPost.com, ProPublica and Center for Independent Media. Winners will be announced at 3 p.m. EDT.

From a two newspaper to a two Website town? – One month after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer shut down its print operation and moved online only comes word of a second Web-based news enterprise in the Emerald City. A group of former PI journalists – not the same group still running SeattlePI.com – have launched a non-profit news site called SeattlePostGlobe.org. According to this Seattle Times story, the PostGlobe will be staffed by 20 former PI employees and will run on reader contributions, a la the public radio model. The enterprise is partnering with SeattleWeekly.com and the city’s public TV station, KCTS/9.

In case LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook aren’t enough – Journalists now have a social network to call their own. The UK-based Journalist Social Network reports signing up 600 writers in the first weeks of its launch. Like existing social networks, members can create profiles, read member blogs, watch videos and join interest groups. The site’s owned by London-based Chatter Ltd., which has launched 100 niche online networks. A quick peek at the site’s online forums showed chatter on Journalist Network was still on the light side.

How much is a blog post worth? – The Blog Herald has as detailed an analysis as I’ve ever seen on how much bloggers are paid to blog. It’s part of a series on blogging jobs the six-year-old blogging industry new site is running. It’s riveting stuff, and depressing. Nobody’s getting rich blogging on a fee-for-post basis, according to Lorelle VanFossen, the article’s author. Her conclusion:

If you want to blog for a living, don’t take just any blogging job or low paying jobs. It isn’t worth it. Get paid what you are worth so every blogger within the industry can get a chance to make a decent living and not be undercut by those blogging for $5 a post. Consider your expertise and ask for what you deserve.

Sign of the times – In case you needed any more convincing you should pitch queries elsewhere, U.S. magazine ad pages fell 26 percent in the first quarter, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Ad revenue and pages declined in the top 12 magazine advertising categories, according to the magazine industry research group.

More free ONA memberships – The Online News Association gave away 31 memberships to recently laid off journalists as part of its Support a Journalist campaign that ultimately looks to raise $90,000 for free memberships for displaced reporters. Get details about donating or applying to the program here.

Twitter tools of the week:

• Hootsuite – A Twitter app that lets you manage multiple accounts, pre-publish tweets and add multiple editors to a single account.
• Muck Rack – Another list of journalists on Twitter. This one’s brand new, still fairly small, and so far, only includes journalists working at major news outlets. The list can be sorted alphabetically or by outlet or links.

Reading old blog posts – The first comes from a social media expert I check in with often, Tac Anderson, a Web 2.0 manager at HP who I interviewed for a story awhile back and then got to know a little better. Anderson’s way ahead of me when it comes to blogging and using social networks. He’s got two blogs and hangs out on Twitter, FriendFeed and BrightKite.

Anderson recently wrote a post on his NewCommBiz.com blog explaining why it’s a good idea for bloggers to re-read old blog posts. His reason? You may have thought you knew everything there was to know about a topic when you wrote the original post. But chances are you’ve gained experience, perspective or better sources in the months or years that have passed. If that’s the case, updating old blog posts could be a great way to come up with new posts. You can read more of Anderson’s thoughts on the subject here.

Previewing posts – I’m a post preview fanatic. When I’m writing posts, I constantly use the “Preview this Post” feature of WordPress to see what the post will look like once it’s published. I didn’t even realize some people never use this feature until I read Lorelle VanFossen’s post on previewing, How Often Do You Preview Your Blog Post? According to VanFossen’s informal research, some bloggers never preview their posts while others hit the “Preview” button up to eight times before actually publishing. VanFossen, author of Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging, explains the pros and cons of WordPress’ current post preview set up. Some bloggers like it, some hate it. Either way, VanFossen says, it’s a good idea to use it.