“What I am happy to pay for are stories that a freelancer has landed cold before he or she ever sends me a pitch. Like the story John H. Tucker, a Columbia graduate student sent me a couple months ago. He had done his reporting, nailed a great story, wrote the thing with skill and care, and there was no way I could turn him down when he sent it to me on spec. The result was our cover last month, “Tales of Hippie Crack.”