You don’t need to subscribe to TheMediaIsDying Twitter feed to know that thousands of journalists have lost their jobs in 2009.  Publishers’ loss, however, seems to be turning into vendors’ gain.  Companies can now bypass editorial review and hire celebrity journalists to publish on their own outlets.  At the recent CES show, for example, Nvidia hired Stephen Wildstrom, formerly BusinessWeek’s Tech & You columnist, to blog from its booth.  Meanwhile, another former BusinessWeek veteran journalist Steve Hamm accepted a position at IBM.

There are a lot of great reasons for vendors to pursue relationships with former journalists.  These talented, well-respected professionals bring with them a nose for news, a flair for storytelling and years of credibility that money has never before been able to buy.  And, with the shrinking amount of traditional editorial space, self-publishing is becoming an increasingly prevalent and important practice, especially for those companies that aren’t named Apple, Google, Microsoft or Cisco.  To help clients take advantage of the shift, Eastwick is developing a “matchmaking” service to connect clients’ content needs with notable freelancers.  We have already begun such collaborations, so stay tuned for more details about these services.