Click on site to preview How To Write A Review, via MediaBistro.com

After a year on staff at the Boston Globe, Ken Johnson came back to the NYT a much better writer. He was always solid if a bit dry, and now his confidence shines through everything he writes.

Another long-time NYT freelancer, Anne Midgette, is blooming on staff at the Washington Post.

Newspapers abuse freelancers. Even when editors make an effort to respond as if they believed they were dealing with a human being, at best they give freelancers a quick once-over and at worst a brutal rewrite. The focus is the brand, the critics on staff.

The world turns, however. As staff positions dry up and blow away, we'll all be freelancers, peddling our individual wares online or working through a critics' coop. All animals in the coop will be equal until the rise of animals that are more equal than others.

Rare now and rarer then will be worthwhile editors, the people who know how to kill the drab and lift good to great. Maybe there will be lotteries in the new age, with winners entitled to an hour or two of a top editor's time. Either on staff or freelance, most critics have never had that.

For those who don't want to wait untill a real editor comes along, there's always MediaBistro, which promises you can learn "everything you need to know about how to craft a smart, well-written Arts and Culture Review" in 15 minutes for $15. Such a deal.