While I’m on vacation this week, I’ll be rerunning some of the best WordCount posts of the year. Look for new posts, including my predictions for the top digital media personalities to watch in 2009, starting January 5. Happy New Year!

Today’s reruns: how writers can beat the recession.

Top 10 digital media trends of 2008

Make money writing about the financial crisis

Freelancers find creative ways to save, grow during bad times

The WordCount bad economy survival kit

Going freelance in a down economy

Freelancers’ strategies for prospering in bad times

You’ve heard the expression, follow the money.

Well, the silver lining of the U.S. economy sliding into the dumps is there’s plenty of work for business writers who know a mortgage-backed security from an adjustable rate mortgage.

If you don’t fit that description now, you could. American University and Arizona State University’s Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism are hosting a free day-long workshop on covering the financial crisis and the economy on Monday, Dec. 8 in Washington D.C.

The workshop, “Covering the Financial Crisis in the New Administration,” will feature presentations and panel discussions on how the economy got it to present sorry state, what an Obama Administration might do to fix it, and how writers can cover the story as it unfolds in their communities.

Presenters will include Jodi Schneider, Congressional Quarterly’s newsroom training and development director and Wendell Cochran, associate professor and journalism division director at American University.

The workshop takes place at American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20016. Registration closes at noon EST on Dec. 2. Register online here. For additional information call  Reynolds Center Director Andrew Leckey at (602) 496-9186.