Earlier this month in Slate, Jack Shafer took the New York Times to task for what he sees as a constricting set of ethics guidelines. Although he doesn’t argue with recent incidents that led to the firing of three freelancers, he sees their code as pandering to a lowest common denominator of decorum that’s at odds with good investigative reporting, and slams it accordingly. I don’t pretend to have read the 54-page “Rube Goldberg-ian chastity belt that appears to have been hewn by a platoon of lawyers” through, and don’t intend to unless the Times hires me, but I doubt much of it would be surprising. While the paper hasn’t turned into an oversized PARADE Magazine yet—that’ll never happen without Ask Marilyn, anyway—neither is it exactly the forefront of hard-hitting journalism. It’s the Times, it’s a little soft around the edges, and you get what you [will soon] pay for.

On the other hand, sometimes we get what they don’t pay for. When Tin House Books reissued Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money, a celebration of life off the grid, journalist Paige Williams set out to write a feature on its author. “Dolly Freed” was 18 when the book was originally published in 1978, and a bit more comfortable with the fringe existence than she is now, as the mother of two teenagers. Williams agreed to respect her wish to stay pseudonymous, and proceeded with the interview accordingly. The Times sent their own photographers along. But because she wouldn’t publish her subject’s real name they ultimately pulled the article, and she hasn’t been able to place it elsewhere.

So Williams is getting out the proverbial tip jar and putting it up on her own blog, asking readers to donate what they think the piece is worth. You can call it Radiohead journalism—I always think of scraping change out of my coat pockets and from the bottom of my backpack as a kid outside that other venerable pay-what-you-like institution, the Museum of Natural History. The idea is the same: Figure out what you think something is worth, balance that with what you can afford to give, and be honest.

How’s that working out? Williams says she’s recouped $823 out of about $2,000, so maybe not all that well (though I’m betting that admission on NPR’s On the Media probably upped that a bit). Still, the New York Times would be proud—Williams turned down Dolly Freed’s offer of a donation:

She clicked on PayPal and she sent 50 dollars. She was dismayed to find out that I would have to give the money back, because I explained to her that I can’t take money from the people that I write about. She did give the photographer some dewberry jelly, which I’m really jealous of.