POWER BROKERS.

MONEY, THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT MARILYN MONROE'S pronouncement on Hollywood's reviled studio system is creeping up on the Internet world. * Big portals like StarMedia Network now charge some smaller dot-coms-cousins by way of investor Chase Capital Partners-for access to their millions of regular viewers. And, as with the West Coast power brokers of yore--the Warners, Louis B. Mayer and the like--some content will clearly be big-ticket "A" content that drags 'em in, while some is doomed to the "B" list. * "You have to be on the menu. To be on the menu, you need great content, or you have to pay,' says Alfonso Riveroll-Pietri, founder and CEO of Conectium, which builds private label wireless portals in Latin America. In other words, grab your partners, and get ready to do-si-do. * In some cases, content providers can charge. In some cases, distributors can charge, says Craig Walling, executive vice president of financial portal ZonaFinanciera.com, which aggregates free content from around the Web but pays for Reut ers news. "It's a matter of which has the greater force." * Money, and muscle, are indeed what it's all about. Interactive maps can cost sites US$1 each time a user clicks through for driving directions. How long can that go on before somebody has to pay? As long as the Internet is free to users, that somebody likely will have a dot in its name.