Try it for yourself: Set search engine Google.com loose on "Jimmy Guterman" and you'll discover the electronic tracks of two interesting guys with that rare moniker. One fellow is an Internet and media pundit whose name comes up as a regular contributor to the likes of The Industry Standard and Inside.com. The other guy is a master raconteur of rock and roll, often cited as the author of superstar-skewering books on the best and worst works in the genre.

But when you look a little further, you'll see that those dual tracks actually converge in the singular Guterman, who also plies the trade of editorial and management consultant to major media companies' online projects.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Guterman moved to Massachusetts in 1986. For the next decade, he worked for a number of publishers, either as a full-time writer, editor or producer, or as a contributor. He was a product analyst at the trade publication PC Week (now eWeek) and a senior producer at early Internet pioneer Delphi Internet Services Corp., while also contributing features and reviews to Rolling Stone, the rock magazine of record.

During this period, Guterman also wrote five books on rock and roll, including The Worst Rock-And-Roll Records of All Time: A Fan's Guide to the Stuff You Love to Hate. His books represent an achievement more personal than financial. "I think people write books because they're passionate about the subject," Guterman says. If you calculated all the time he spent on research, writing and marketing, "I don't know if you'd reach the minimum wage," he adds.

In 1994 and 1995, Guterman helped launch the Internet publishing revolution at Delphi -- and prepared himself for his leap to professional independence. "I saw that the window of opportunity for a writer who ‘got the Net' would close pretty quickly," he says. Guterman jumped at the opportunity and also found a new way of working that meshed with his new role as a father. "I have three small children – that's why I'm doing this as an independent," he explains.

What exactly was the market opportunity that Guterman believed he could exploit? "I think people go to the Web or to any media to be informed or to be entertained. There's always a huge opportunity to do a better job of that." And to prove it, in the late 1990s, Guterman signed up an impressive array of clients. He and his one-person staff at The Vineyard Group Inc. have, for example, consulted to Forbes magazine and Microsoft Corporation on the development of their initial online services; helped launch Amazon.com's music store, and advised ZDNet on its strategic alliances.

Guterman believes that he could make more money as a media executive in a corporation. But his current arrangement provides him with plenty of interesting challenges -- without taking over his whole life. Unlike many high-flying executives and consultants, "this year, I expect to spend less than half a dozen nights away from home," he says.

What looms large on the horizon of Guterman's editorial consultancy? The design of quality user experiences for the small screens of wireless devices. "The Palm is different from the Web," he says. "I think it's fun to try to figure out how to educate and inform in new contexts. Companies are realizing that handhelds perform a different function than devices that show the Web in 17 inches diagonal."

Music and technology never stop intertwining in Guterman's career; he recently wrote a piece for The Industry Standard on "Why Labels Should Love Napster." What about his early prediction of a brief window of opportunity for online editorial consultants like himself? "It didn't turn out that way," he says with a sigh of relief. For Guterman, that window is still open, and the ringing register of Pink Floyd's "Money" is floating in on the breeze.