After the business beat

Poynter's Steve Myers has a story today that details the transformation of Scott Barancik, a business reporter who was laid off from the St. Petersburg Times and has now reinvented himself.
Baranick has recently begun building a business researching court cases for media clients.
From the story:

Rather than write a story, however, Barancik puts together a summary of key points and contacts, takes photographs of court documents and posts it all to his password-protected Web site, BayLawsuits.com. Perhaps once a week, maybe more, he sees a local television or newspaper story based on his research."All I did was take something I already knew how to do and tried to monetize it," he said. "I still don't know if it's going to work or if it's going to be a real living."