Reduced to quoting my own tweets 3 days before Xmas! But if you think my situation is somewhat desperate, imagine the real-life work environment of Deadspin’s A.J. Daulerio, who upon learning of TMZ’s plans, wrote “I already have to worry about one scary gay tyrant breathing down my neck, now I have to worry about two? No longer will Daulerio’s highly-trafficked site have a monopoly on pictures of Ben Rothelisburger boozing it up or tales of Sean Salisbury’s phone-cam woes, but if you think A.J.’s just gonna wave a white flag, think again.

Remember ” we pay, too. Probably on a less frequent basis than they do, but should the right thing come along that I feel Deadspin could benefit from, I’ll gladly pay for it. It’s only happened once before, but if I have to start being more aggressive about using this burlap sack of scuzz money I have sitting on my desk, then so be it.

The “once before” occasion Daulerio recalls was Deadspin paying $4k (after a thrilling bidding war/tie with The Dirty.com) for documentation of Josh Hamilton’s January 2009 lapse into typical hetereosexual jock behavior. Lest you find such checkbook jello-shot journalism distasteful, Daulerio argues, “if it’s a good enough story that will help keep the lights on at this organization so that Craggs, Dash, Drew, Leitch, Barry and other writers can do more less sleaze-covered stories that are the true heart of this website, I’ll do it in a second.’

There’s obviously gonna be some difference of opinion over exactly what is at the true heart of that website, but I totally empathize with A.J.’s situation.  I’m losing a brutal pageview battle with high school newspapers and this paradigm-smasher, but don’t think I’m unwilling to get my hands dirty.  I’ll pay $15 (fifteen) U.S. dollars for video or still photography of Mike Piazza and Sam Champion shopping at Crate & Barrel, and if that’s what it takes to allow the likes of Jason Cohen, David Roth, Rob Warmowski, Ben Schwartz, Chuck Meehan or Liz Clayton to continue posting for free when they could be doing something far more lucrative, that’s exactly what I’ll do.  Despite the fact they’d probably be doing it anyway and it’s just about me keeping the Yardbarker ad money.