About Spot-On
Welcome to Spot-On.com, a web-based syndication service offering a range of independent, intelligent and insightful looks at politics and current events.
In a world saturated with news and information Spot-on offers clarity, good-sense and great writing about what matters most, when it matters. Our writers are experienced, smart and opinionated; our information is accurate and smartly presented.
History
Spot-On.com started as a one-woman website in 2003 when political and business journalist Chris Nolan decided to stop yelling at her TV set and started writing and publishing political commentary. Nolan called her work "stand alone journalism" to describe what happens when inexpensive Internet publishing tools get in the hands of experienced writers and reporters. She's been a pioneer in thinking and developing business and editorial models suited to the networked news environment of the 21st Century, combining the use of new technologies with traditional - and tested - editorial values and practices.
In 2005, Nolan launched Spot-on.com with three writers. Today, the service has a growing group of syndication clients and 14 writers.
We offer two basic categories or packages of commentary.
Our current op-ed and politics roster includes:
- Health care and public health policy writer Matthew Holt writes about those issues, clearly and with humor.
- Southern California Republican Scott Olin Schmidt offers a business-oriented Republican's take on politics, from California to Washington, D.C.
- From Boulder, Colo., Christopher Brauchli provides a wry look at the days events with a frankly liberal slant.
- Christopher Allbritton reports on Lebanon and the Middle East from his current home in Beirut. Allbritton, founder of the well-respected Back-to-Iraq blog is and experienced international writer and reporter.
- Jonathan Ansfield, a long-time resident of Beijing writes twice a month about Chinese culture and politics.
- Mike Spinney writes about politics and religion - he's an evangelical Christian and a Libertarian - from the heart of Massachusetts.
- Marisa Treviño is a Dallas, Texas-based freelance opinion journalist whose writings focus on Latino and social justice issues pertaining to education, immigration, women and families.
- Nolan who writes about politics from a feminist perspective. She is the site's editor and founder.
Our feature line-up is just as deep. It includes:
- Kevin Weeks who writes about food for Spot-on. A chef in Knoxville, Tenn., Kevin knows his way around a kitchen - one that uses all the good stuff: fat, flesh and flavoring.
- From Milan, the gimlet-eyed Nicole Martinelli writes about European culture and politics.
- Experienced journalist, Deborah Klosky, who writes about modern-day motherhood from a feminist perspective.
- And from just west of Washington, D.C. Jeanne Jackson writes about pop culture, raising kids and just how wacky the world can be if you let it get to you.
- From Delhi, India, Gopika Kaul writes about the country where she was born and recently returned, talking about how India is changing and why.
- P.J. Rodriguez loves pop culture - movies and videos, music and television, games and goofiness. He look at what we like and why we like it.
In earlier years, political conservative Josh Trevino, co-founder of Redstate.org wrote regularly for Spot-on during its first year, helping to expand the depth and reach of the site. And screenwriter Marshal Zeringue served briefly as our book and film critic.
Spot-on's talented writers are selected for their smarts, their strong points of view and their ability to add intelligence and insight to any page - print or web - where they appear. And they're for sale.
Our rates are reasonable and we offer a range of introductory services: advertising-free, full-text RSS, Atom or XML feeds tailored to your editorial needs, nightly edit budgets (with archive access) and other reminders. We want to demonstrate how Spot-on helps editors and producers create vibrant websites and balanced, provocative op-ed and feature pages that bring readers back, again and again.
Interested in learning more? Write to Doug Page our syndication sales guru.
Interested in advertising on our site and in our ad-supported syndication feeds? Send an email to Advertise[at]Spot-on.com and we'll tell you how we can help you get the most for your money from our range of political voices and points of view.
Our rates are competitive and our readers are well-educated and contribute regularly to political campaigns. A significant portion of our readers are women - the economic decision makers in affluent households across he nation. Equally significant, a large group of our readers are not affiliated with either political party. When we say "independent" we - and they - mean it.
You can also buy ads through Burst Media or our Adify.com storefront. Ads for our retail RSS feed can be purchased via Google's Feedburner.
If you find a factual error, please tell us as soon as possible so that we can make the appropriate corrections quickly. If you have a complaint or comment to make about something you've read on the site, please direct it to the individual writer. Writers thrive on mail and others' opinions but if you would like to keep your correspondence private, please alert the writer to that fact.
Disagreements about interpretation and emphasis, however, are just that and will be treated as such. For that reason, we encourage correspondence between readers and writers. If, however, you don't feel your comments have been adequately addressed by the writer, please contact Spot-on.com editor Chris Nolan.
We are constantly on the hunt for new writers and new voices to add to our site and offer to larger outlets.
If you think you've got what it takes - a clear point of view, a smart way of looking at the world - send an email with pointers to stuff you've written or sites where you regularly comment to WriteFor[at]Spot-on.com.
We also have limited number of school-year internships for students in public policy, journalism or international affairs in the San Francisco Bay area. Send a brief email to WriteFor[at]Spot-On.com if you're interested in helping out.
Privacy
If you have signed up for our email alerts or newsletter, we will not resell your address to any third party. We will not use it for sales or promotional purposes.
This site would not be possible without the hard work, technical and artistic skills of a number of people in a number of different places.
Our original design is the clever work of Lauren Oliver of Quellette.net here in California. Our MT 3.2 templates were coded by the able Paul Farnell of Salted.com who - literally - burnt the midnight oil in the U.K. to get our work done. Our technical support and maintenance is done with patience and thoroughness by Aaron Bailey at 601am.com
Copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved, SteelWill, Inc. SPOT ON is a trademark of SteelWill, Inc.