Cyberbrute,
In general, no. But it all depends on what becomes of the article that is linking to your site (or articles). For instance if for some reason they are very good content and people start linking to them all the time, then those links leading from the article to your site may become very valuable.
In my experience, people use this tactic in tiered linking and if the articles are actually of some use, they eventually see a benefit. On the other hand if you put out a bunch of junk, you will get junk back.
Article directories were also hit in one of the Google algorithm updates,
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2242706/10-Common-Link-Building-Problems
Best,
Shawn
