Placing a value on bylines

Each week, Evan Peterson rounds up stories from across the Web that scribes of all stripes should check out. Usually this post focuses on articles about writing from the past week. Today, I’ve pulled together some stories published over the last year that I either missed or didn’t have space to include, beginning with one that answers a big question.

What’s the value of a byline?: Would you have wanted to be a writer if there were never a promise of a byline? Your name would never appear on a story, no matter how many hours and drafts you put in, and you would be required to conform your writing to the voice of the publication— the same voice as every other writer there. This is how it used to be at many magazines and newspapers a century or so ago, and it’s still how things work at The Economist. In their daily Economist Explains blog, they describe their reasons for keeping writers (mostly) anonymous, which is a bit different than the traditional reasons: