Just one addition: Britt will continue his T-wolves coverage for us through the end of the season.

Brian, what does this mean for Dude Weather?

LAMBERT: See the update.

Tom, if you could no longer pay the bills for electricity, rent, or your ISP, would you stay in business? No. Would you ask those vendors to work for free? No. So why are the people who provide the content for your site -- the very nuts and bolts of your business -- any different?

Oh, wait, I know: because, as this writer for The Week noted (http://www.theweek.com/article/index/93866/Is_writing_for_the_rich), there are oodles of people out there dying to write for free.

Thanks. Thanks, publishers. Thanks, writers, for completely devaluing our profession.

Tricia, I'm not asking anyone to write for free. I fully expect that, if I'm not willing to pay, they won't write. I did not ask anyone to continue to write for us for free.

As for devaluing the profession, writers such as you who write stuff as fact without doing basic reporting are doing a fine job of that without my help.

LAMBERT: Uh, oh.

I heard Nick Coleman has taken (is taking) the buy-out and while it may still be in negotiation, he will leave under a no-compete. What exactly is a no-compete when they disseminate the profession, outsource jobs, and force the writers out? Does it mean anything to restrict their ability to find future employment anymore?

LAMBERT: In the best of times if you're forced out of your job -- as Coleman clearly was, no matter how much "reassignment" legalese the Strib wants to paint on it -- a non-compete is tough to enforce. In today's climate -- where there are no jobs -- its absurd.

"Whether any of the writers—in particular those covering the visual arts for Secrets—have any other paying option is doubtful at best. Max Sparber, editor of MnSpeak, is still getting his paycheck and will continue with his work."

If I may respond on behalf of the six writers of SoTC's visual arts blog "The Thousandth Word."

These are tough times for all manner of business and for workers everywhere, so we're not feeling sorry for ourselves because a paying publication venue has gone away. (If we were prone to that, we would have given up long ago.) Fact is, we all have other paying gigs -- some that involve writing, some that are simple day work -- and we wrote for SoTC because we believed in what we were doing: expressing thoughts about art for a local audience. If anything, we six writers are sad for the artists of our community, about whom coverage continues to shrink locally as the economy unravels.

At the risk of sounding a bit mercenary though, I have to admit that none of us plan to continue writing for Bartel's enterprise in its decline. We all believe it is essential for writers on culture to get paid, even if only nominally, for their work. Now that Bartel can no longer pay, we'll take ourselves to the highest bidder, wherever we find it. And please note: I personally have a story coming out in MSP Mag in April; Glenn Gordon is writing for Black & White magazine and other publications; Andy Sturdevant has a piece up on the mnartists.org site, and so on. (So to answer Lambert: Yes, there are other options for writers of caliber, even those who write about visual arts.)

In the end, "The Thousandth Word" bloggers appreciated the free and open opportunity that Bartel offered for nine months to a group of writers to explore and express our opinions about local and national art (you can find the 50 stories we wrote archived on the Secrets of the City site, and we sympathize with his struggles to keep alive what was a great local publication. We will always wish him well in all of his future efforts.

LAMBERT: Let me emphasize -- it is a pity. We need more -- not a lot less -- arts coverage.