I stopped writing magazine articles when editors stopped using freelance articles. That was nearly 10 years ago. (Oddly enough, I just had a submitted article returned to me that never ran even though the manuscript has numerous editing marks. They were clearing out their files.) My two books still sell a few copies every month even though they were published a decade ago and I have never marketed them. They earn me enough to buy a Happy Meal some months. (I have the prices set at the minimum the publisher allows.)
Rocky,
I noticed the same anti-freelance trend about the same time, even though by then I was a staffer for several magazines. Partly I noticed because some people still aspire to being freelance writers, and ask older writers how to do it. In fact Eileen and I have been teaching a monthly adult-education writing class on how to get published for over a decade, and the process has changed almost entirely since I broke into the business in the 1970s.
As one magazine editor explained it when he retired a decade ago, the magazine business is far more competitive now than it was even 25 years ago--due to competition from various other sources such as TV and the Internet. Many editors simply can't afford to spend the time to read freelance submissions, because editorial staffs have been cut drastically. When I started writing for him there were 14 full-time workers in the editorial office, who put out a 150+ page magazine every month. Today the "magazine" is published quarterly, totally on-line, and may have 2-3 office staffers.
That's one of the more drastic transitions, one I could kinda see coming 20 years ago, when I quit writing for his magazine. But today most magazines simply must use staff-writers who can provide reliable "content," rather than spend time on freelance submissions. (Which brings up a question: How do they find reliable "content providers" when they don't encourage freelancers?)
I broke in by writing stories and sending them to magazines. My first sale was to Sports Illustrated, back when they regularly published hunting and fishing articles, about flyfishing in the winter in Wyoming. They paid me what would be the equivalent of over $2000 today--for a "regional" story that only ran in certain parts of the country. Wrote some more regional pieces for them before selling them a main feature, which paid the equivalent of $6000 today.
That sort of pay doesn't happen often anymore, because the "publishing" pie is split up so many ways--partly into "free content," such as the Campfire. Eileen and I still do okay because we followed some of the new trends, including self-publishing books. In fact our self-published books are now our single largest source of income--but we had also learned through publishing books through several conventional companies about the many ways they can screw writers, and decided to keep that money for ourselves.
The big problem with self-publishing, whether magazines or books or Internet "content," if of course finding ways to get paid (unless, of course, you write to please yourself). It's a whole different business now.