The Dow dropped to its lowest mark in five years, but even though that spelled bad news for investors, financial websites came out on top.

Who said people would never pay for something they could get for free? The Online Publishers Association yesterday announced the results of its first U.S. Market Spending Report for paid online content, and as it turns out, U.S. consumers spent $675 million for online content in 2001, a 92% increase over 2000 spending levels.