Link: Blogger Goes Big Time with NY Times Gig

Poynter Online:

...generic blogging won't attract the attention of media outlets. However, blogging about a specific trend, topic or industry can open the same door Stelter just walked through.

Definition: Checkbook Journalism

Checkbook journalists pay their sources for the right to run a story.

Example: Larry Flynt's regular offers to pay for sex scandal stories involving politicians.

Television is supposedly more reliant on checkbook journalism than print media, but there is little evidence to support this claim.

On Wikipedia