Yet another competitor is jumping into the econoblogosphere. According to a Reuters report Slate.com is set to launch a business and economics-related site.* “The Big Money” joins an increasingly crowded field.

“The Big Money” aims to use wit and irreverence to explain the arcana of Wall Street, the same way Slate has done with general and political news, Editor James Ledbetter told Reuters in an interview.

“We’re reaching a different audience, a general interest site for people who have an interest in money and financial affairs and economics … but not specifically or necessarily who work in the finance industry,” he said.

Slate has always had coverage of business with the likes of Daniel Gross, Tim Harford, and Steven E. Landsburg. Presumably these writers would contribute to the new site, but additional writers/bloggers will be needed to fill out the site.

One place they may find that is at econoblogosphere heavyweight Seeking Alpha. SA has come under some criticism for not paying its roster of contributors. This despite the fact that the site generates not insignificant revenue. Felix Salmon at Market Movers catches us up on the story and provides Mick Weinstein at SA a chance to respond. In short SA is providing its contributors exposure, not cash.

For our contributors, joining SA means much more exposure, reaching a far broader audience, expanding the conversation around their ideas and creating new business opportunities. Sure, we’re building a business of our own, but our success as a company not only can be shared with our contributors – it must. Our contributors are the heart of the site. Our relationship with contributors has always been a win-win, and we’re continually thinking of ways to bring more to our contributors.

For the time being, our model doesn’t involve a revenue share, but (unlike HuffPo, it seems) we haven’t ruled that out for the future.

A couple of other items of note.

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture shows how traffic to his blog explodes on days of severe market stress. For what it is worth the same traffic surge happened here at as well.

Adam Warner at the Daily Options Report takes a closer look at the public pronouncements of one big media type on the Bear Stearns fiasco. In short, relying solely on Big Media for your investment advice is a sucker’s game.

Just for fun, Trainee Trader has used a blog readability tool to measure the “reading level” of various investment blogs. As an example, Abnormal Returns is written at the high school level. Sounds about right. You can check out how other investment blogs rate as well.**

*Hat tip: Silicon Alley Insider

**A word of warning to those of you thinking of adding the “Blog Readability” badge to your blog. (Digital Inspiration via an astute AR reader)

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