Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Feb. 27–March 4, 2012
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, publishing, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Torstar reports profit jump, but outlook ‘challenged’ [Canada.com]
- Torstar book publishing revenues drop $5.1m [TheBookseller.com]
- To learn what works (quickly), Canada’s National Post dives deep into ebooks [Nieman Journalism Lab]
- Google for journalists: tips and techniques [J-Source]
From the U.S. and beyond:
- Introducing Collaboration Central, a new website from MediaShift [MediaShift/PBS.org]
- NPR tries to get its pressthink right [Jay Rosen’s PressThink]
- What publishers really mean in their rejection letters [Guardian UK’s Shortcuts blog] (via @natemotivate)
- Pinterest becomes top traffic driver for women’s magazines [Mashable] (via @mama_theresa)
- The 2011 Count [VIDA: Women in Literary Arts] Data on women writing reviews and having their work reviewed in major literary publications; read about the 2010 results here and here.
- The girls at the front: Evgenia Peretz on female war correspondents [Vanity Fair] (via @katyanderson)
- Slate to begin a monthly review of books [NYTimes.com] (via @romenesko)
- Find suitable art to avoid assault on the eyes [BusinessJournalism.org]
- The Gary Oldman story that almost wasn’t [GQ.com] (hat tip to David Hayes)
- The pitfalls of freelancing [infographic]
From Story Board last week:
- Time to file: The Born Freelancer on taxing matters: Death and taxes. The only things certain in life. That and the fact there will be nothing I want to watch on TV when I turn it on tonight. (And of course I know I will always find out the next day that I had just missed something spectacular). Preparing a freelancer’s taxes can be a bit intimidating at first. I’d like to share some general thoughts with you on this topic which I hope will be especially helpful to the novice Canadian freelancer. (It may or may not be helpful to those living in other countries.)
- Fun, retro-style video from CMG drives home reasons to join a union: For those not yet convinced, this video commissioned by the Canadian Media Guild/CWA Canada cheekily illustrates a few good reasons to join a union. Produced by MyFilm Productions, with music by Incompetech, the narrative centres on “Jenny,” who is excited to start her new job, only to discover that she was hired to replace a more experienced colleague, who will now be “restructured” out the door, and that her new employers aren’t too interested in fairness or respect for their workers. Jenny needs a union.
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca.
Posted on March 4, 2012 at 9:41 pm by editor · · Tagged with: news, Off the Wire
