In late July, during a Torah lecture at a Los Angeles synagogue, Luke Ford experienced an epiphany: After four years of hate mail, death threats, lawsuits, and being ostracized from his local Jewish community, it was suddenly time to walk away from Lukeford.com, his one-man Website of news and gossip covering the adult industry.

Soon after, the boyish 36-year-old Australian known as the 'porn Matt Drudge,' sold his infamous site to an adult Webmaster for a mere $25,000. He tossed out stacks of smut from his tiny bachelor bungalow, clearing space for even higher piles of Jewish literature and self-help books such as 'What You Feel You Can Heal,' and prepared to reconcile with a religion that has twice expelled him from orthodox synagogues after rabbis discovered his site.

'Judaism is not something you can do on your own; you have to belong to a community,' explains a relieved Ford. 'So I had to quit.'

Though Ford's final motivation to shut down was certainly unique, the hassles that led him there were largely the same that daunt maverick Web publishers the world over: How do you avoid burnout, when you're the only employee? How do you make a living - especially after the dot-com crash -- and protect yourself from expensive lawsuits? And, if you're one of those lucky enough to have achieved some level of notoriety and traffic, how do you walk away from the very thing that made you famous?

'I'm overall happier,' Ford says, 'but if it was just between God and me, I would have kept doing my site.' But old habits die hard - an active and (mostly) sex-free diary site has popped up at lukeford.net.

Passion vs. Money

When the history books on Internet journalism are written, much ink will be spilled on the Drudgification of the news business - how passionate amateurs and outsiders, normally barred from covering the subjects they loved, exploited their energy and the new technology to post original stories unfiltered by editors, corporate lawyers or nervous ad reps, becoming household names in the process. There's Harry Knowles, the orange-haired Texan whose Ain't It Cool News can sink multi-million dollar movies in a single rant. Or Canadian Drudge Pierre Bourque and his NewsWatch, New Jersey high school whiz Sergio Bichao and his DaHiller, lesser-known stalwarts like Northern California's Betty Buginas and her El Cerrito Wire ? the list is longer than anyone really knows.

'There are countless such sites out there,' says Jonathan Dube, technology editor for MSNBC.com and founder of the reporters' resource site cyberjournalist.net.

'They come and go,' says Doug Millison, the Bay Area-based publisher of Online-Journalist.com. 'There are just too many sites people don't know about. Without editorial budget, it's difficult to sustain an editorial operation.'

Many die without fanfare, after the passion ceases working as a substitute for money. On March 13, for example, the once-ballyhooed Gaming Insider - a sharp-tongued insider site on the gaming industry written by the mysterious 'BitchX' - closed shop with this simple note: 'It's been a while since I had any interesting news to report!' (Several attempts to locate BitchX were unsuccessful.)

Others, like Jim Romenesko's MediaGossip (now called Media News) and Royce Webb's Sportsjones, gladly accept buyouts from deeper-pocketed organizations (The Poynter Institute and ESPN.com, respectively ? though Romenesko maintains his cult favorite Obscure Store).

With the popularization of 'blogging' technology (which makes links-based Web publishing infinitely easier), and with more and more professional journalists launching me-zines, it also may be harder to dominate a particular news category. Still, as always, the main obstacle to longevity is money.

'Most of these sites are done as a labor of love by the owners, often at a financial loss,' says Dube.

Asked how he sustained himself and his family for the first two years of Sportsjones.com, the smart sports Webzine he ran from his house in Nashville, founder Royce Webb answers: 'Credit cards.' Webb piled up tens of thousands of debt from 1998 to 2000, and his wife even quit her job as a school teacher to help out with the site and look after their young daughter.

Jonathon Wells, who has spent $5,000 since July 2000 to co-publish the Chicago-based society-gossip page Adams-Wells.net, put his site on hiatus in August of this year after his partner moved to New York. 'Burnout was a factor, definitely,' he says.

Luke Ford, who lives frugally in a house with no kitchen, believes that he was the only independent Web publisher to make a real living through banner ads and sponsorship - between $40-50,000 a year at the high point, he says, though the Nasdaq collapse of March 2000 put a major crimp in his style: 'I had to scramble. I had to secure my own banner ads, and I hated doing that. The crash of the New Economy, the crash of my sponsors, this was getting bad. But I could live solely off my site.'

Drudge and Knowles certainly make far more money off spin-off activities than banner ads. Drudge, who famously got his start in a small Hollywood flat, hosts a widely syndicated talk radio show, has written a best-selling book, and had a short-lived TV show on Fox. 'Like Drudge, I mainly earn my living from writing on my books, tv show and radio show,' Knowles explains. His house in Austin, his cars and everything in regards to Aint-it-cool-news.com is covered by the site itself and his other endeavors, such as his forthcoming book, he adds: 'Banner ads help support the cost of maintaining the site, though pop-up ads are what really pay all the bills.'

Ottawa's Pierre Bourque, a journalist who used to drive race cars, has run News Watch since early 1998 as a supplement to his weekly Internet column, radio show and book-writing. In addition, Bourque uses his site to sell t-shirts, mugs and his own blend of coffee.

Most Web publishers will tell you that passion outweighs financial concerns -- at least until they quit. But the mavericks are exposed to a far more serious risk than most other (better-paid) journalists ever really worry about: lawsuits.

Covering their Asses

Without a legal department, deep pockets, and (in many cases) experience with avoiding libel challenges, one-person Web journalists constantly run the risk of being sued out of existence.

Ford says he was served with three lawsuits in four years. One was dropped, another one was dismissed but one libel suit, brought by an actress who said Ford wrongly identified her as participating in a video, was settled out of court last year for $150,000. Ford says he wanted to fight the suit 'to the bitter end,' but abided to the recommandation of his insurance carrier - Lloyd's of London, through the National Writers Union - and made the deal (which also stipulated that he never write about the actress again).

The Writers Union later dropped him, Ford says. (Doeren Mayhew Risk Management's Tom Welbourn, the Media Perils Program representative for the NWU, declined to discuss the case 'as a matter of confidentiality.') 'They probably spent $50-100,000 on my defense, and I understand how bad this must have been for them, but I needed to recover legal costs I had engaged,' says Ford, who ended up suing the NWU in a complicated case. The parties settled out of court.

The Writers Union, which offers members up to $1 million in coverage for a flat $215 annual fee, has accepted 95% of its 900 Media Perils Insurance applications, Welbourn says. The underwriters 'are not bothered by the online aspect' of publishing, although 'pornography is excluded, due to the magnitude of claims received in connection with Web based pornography sites.'

As for other risks, 'high profile negative writing is a concern,' Welbourn says, and 'extensively published authors present too much risk for the premium being charged.' He declined to comment on specific journalists who may or may not meet those descriptions.

Web publishers who can't or don't want to get NWU insurance say they can find cheap legal assistance without too much problem, not unlike the way Drudge was able (with the help of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture) to set up a legal defense fund after being sued for $30 million by then-White house aide Sidney Blumenthal in 1997. (The case was settled with a whimper this spring.)

Bourque says that 'a number of lawyers have freely offered to help if needed,' though he so far hasn't needed any. DaHiller's Sergio Bichao was put in touch with a lawyer by the Hillside (New Jersey) Citizen's Action Committee, after the Hillside mayor and City Council threatened to sue him this July over a column that questioned their use of taxpayer money.

'They ? did a good job of calming down my family and explaining to them the vile and dirty ways of our elected officials,' the high school senior explains. 'I also contacted all the local media because public outcry -- and boy, was there! -- always influences politicians' decisions.' Bichao rejected the Council's demands for retraction, and none of the lawyer's threats have been followed up on.

Not everybody lives in fear of receiving summons. Betty Buginas, the full-time teacher who runs a community news Website about the city El Cerrito, thinks she has a 'clear understanding to avoid legal difficulties,' because of her journalism education and 10 years experience in the field. 'The community news are straight, and opinion pieces are clearly labeled as such,' she says. Also, she says, she doesn't have the time to launch many investigative projects, and she refrains from publishing gossip or rumors.

In Chicago, Jonathon Wells says he never attracted legal problems, thanks to a few self-censoring precautions. 'There are a couple of people in Chicago we can never touch. We never touched Oprah, period.' Because of potential legal consequences? 'Exactly.'

Sportsjones' Webb remembers only one painful episode: a large publishing company threatened to sue when they learned the sportzine was investigating a charge of plagiarism against one of its authors. 'A lawyer, who advised us for free, said these people could shut us down if they wanted,' Webb says. 'Even though we had something pretty good to publish, It wasn't worth giving up all the effort so many people had made over one item, so we moved on.'

Hollywood fave Harry Knowles also says he's never been threatened with a suit ? per se.

'I've never gotten close to that, because a great deal of the news I do is based on opinon,' he explains. But the 29-year-old movie buff, who has angered Hollywood by posting still shots of scenes suppressed by censors, says he has been issued two cease-and-desist orders by studios. 'In this case, well, you just cease and desist. You issue a statement and say the studio have asked you to remove the items.'

The other side to the lawsuit issue is corruption - given their oftentimes amateur background, meager resources and occasionally large power, lone Web publishers may prove easier than most journalists to bully, cajole or even corrupt.

'I think that for these sites, the real money opportunity is in being bribed,' Luke Ford says. 'You can make much more money from a site like mine not writing things, than writing things.' Ford says he never succumbed to temptation, but adds it can be 'hard to refuse when you're not responsible to anyone above.'

Knowles is perhaps the highest-profile Web maverick who is openly courted by the subjects he covers. He has been accused (by competitors and mainstream publications) of selling out in return for being flown around the world at Hollywood's expense, but he insists his judgment is pure, even while making fun of his own alleged corruption.

'When studios contact me, or anonymously provide me with a link to something they've created, I'm usually bored with it,' he says. But when he's presented with something he considers newsworthy, like a first peek at the campaign for the Spielberg movie 'A.I.,' for instance, Knowles plays their game: 'With A.I., I wasn't upset by feeling used because it was such a smart concept for an ad campaign, that I actually believe it deserved the coverage and the hype. And it didn't prevent me from writing what I thought of the movie.'

Wells, of Adams-Wells.net, says he fielded regular offers when the gossip site was running, but that the would-be bribers were immediately placed on a blacklist barring them from being written about. 'The most abusive situation was when an interior designer suggested 'kick-backs' based on new clients obtained through column referrals. This particular individual attempted many times, but was never, ever mentioned in any regard.'

Burning Out

When asked whether he ran the risk of burnout, Harry Knowles roared with laughter. 'It's just so great! I feel so lucky to be able to post 2,500-word stories from anywhere in the U.S.! I just love it!'

Still, the demands of obsessive publishing can be severe.

'The hardest part was just physical,' says Sportsjones' Webb. 'Just strain. It was kind of work- around-the-clock. Seventy or eighty hours a week, sometimes a hundred. I would have to stay up all night sometimes several times a week.' But, he adds, from Day One he had 'a no- discouragement policy.'

It helped also that he was working from home, close to his family, that unpaid contributors would consistently submit good material, and that all the effort showed results. 'We were getting so much attention, the traffic was growing, to maybe 100,000 pages a month, and everybody was so enthusiastic that it was enjoyable.'

Buginas, of El Cerrito Wire, says the joy of publishing still outweighs the exhaustion. 'It's been two years and the burnout isn't a real problem. I feel like I've set a reasonable task and I have some flexibility since I don't have to fill x amount of space each day ? there are also stretches when not much is happening that I have to report on, and I don't feel I have to drudge up something.' But, she admits, after an easy start, 'it pretty quickly dawned on me that I'd committed to something with no logical stopping point, unless the area newspaper and government sites get so good that I'm not needed. I couldn't stop too soon without looking like a flake.'

NewsWatch's Bourque says the pressure hasn't gotten to him: 'I feed off the adrenaline rush of being online in real-time, and that's what prompts me to do what I do online day in and day out. It's always the first thing and last thing I do each and every day.'

As for the future, Bourque is typically optimistic about his own prospects. 'My timelines are never more than eight weeks out on that forever changing horizon,' he says, though he suspects his current 'fabulous' partnership with AOL could blossom: 'Once they have fully digested their new relationship with Time-Warner, I can think of a number of things that we could exploit together. ? It seems to me that the big legacy media players continue to scratch their heads about how to make the promise of the Internet into their reality. Since it makes no sense for them to shutter their online personas, I anticipate that they will inevitably have to turn to those people who excel in the online world for guidance, direction, and leadership. In essence, I sense the most exciting times for me lie ahead.'

Bichao says he won't lose sleep if he shuts down DaHiller: 'The future of Da Hiller is not clear. I would be glad to pass it down to someone else once I leave town for college, but I doubt I'll find someone. If I don't, then I really would have no problems closing up shop. After all, things can't always stay the same. It'll be a sad moment for the proud town of Hillside, but at least I'll give the politicos something to be happy about.'

As the online novelty wears off, the Web pioneers' first-mover advantage also begins to lessen. Walter Robinson, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a loyal reader of NewsWatch, says he's noticed a narrowing of the gap. 'Bourque used to have more gossip columns and interesting political tidbits,' Robinson says. 'The life cycle between his scoops and mainstream media reporting has shrunk. A few years back, a 'political back- room' story could play out in scoops over two or three days on Bourque's site before mainstream media picked it up. Today, it's out in less than a day.'

Another concern is that, as sites die or get bought out, no new ones will spring up in their place. When ESPN.com bought Sportsjones this summer, hiring its editors to produce Sportsjones-like content, Webb's friend Steve Klein wrote in Content-Exchange: 'I can't help but feel sad and just a little disappointed. ? Will SportsJones' edginess be lost amidst the scores and scores of existing ESPN content?'

Webb says he received many warm and concerned e-mails echoing the same fear, but emphasized that he's excited by this new opportunity: 'One part of the story is fatigue. It's tiring to be an entrepreneur, and editor and a publisher every single day. I loved it, but at some point you get really, really tired.'

Another, more optimistic part is that the Sportsjones story could encourage other people to launch sites, Webb says. 'If you're willing to spend money, or go into debt, or work very hard, it's a great time to start a Website,' he says. 'Like me, you could get hired to go to other sites.'

MSNBC.com's Dube suggests that the New Economy crash may well prove to be a boomlet for a new round of lone Web publishers: 'It's even possible that with the demise of many small online publications, those who can't find work online will start their own Weblogs or solo publications simply because they want an outlet.'

As for Luke Ford, he's been flattered by the e-mails of many readers, such as adult star Jeremy Steele, encouraging him to come back in order to hold pornographers more accountable for their behavior: 'My biggest supporters would be many of the little people in porn who got stepped on and abused over the years, written bad checks and lied to and nobody would tell their stories until me,' he says.

Some days he feels regret for shutting down an endeavor in such a secretive world that took so long to infiltrate, and he still doesn't know exactly what to do next. But his family is ecstatic.

'My dad says, 'It will add years to your life,' he jokes. His main problem now, is that two months after the sale of LukeFord.com, his former rabbi hasn't welcomed him back to the synagogue. Like former porn stars who discover that videos last forever, Ford will be associated with his online persona for a long time coming. 'When people type in 'Luke ford' in search engines, they find my old site. I guess you can't really build yourself a new virginity on the Web.'