The Born Freelancer Remembers Freelancing Legend Ken Nordine (1920-2019)
This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
When asked about the most successful route to freelancing, the sage pundits’ advice often seems to fall into two distinct categories: either learn all the essential skill sets that will enable you to fit in seamlessly anywhere, or develop a unique and memorable brand identity that will set you apart from all other competitors.
Both are solid, time-tested approaches that could bring positive career results depending upon your individual goals, needs and personality type.
Today, I want to share with you the story of an extraordinary freelancer who managed to combine these two seemingly mutually exclusive approaches resulting in a financially and creatively successful career.
Ken Nordine’s ability to excel in two mutually exclusive career threads is a reminder that all conventional freelancing wisdom can on occasion be circumnavigated and that successful freelancing careers can arise from the most unexpected of inspirations.
In the beginning…
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer August 20-26
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, communications, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Editor of Your Ward News gets the maximum one year jail for hate promotion [National Newswatch]
- Going viral: Creating contagious content [Robyn Roste]
- Support 140 years of campus journalism — The Varsity’s levy is worth it [The Varsity]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to become a freelance writer while you’re in college [The Write Life]
- How to respond to unsolicited advice from non-writers [The Writer]
- How Slack communities can help you advance your freelance career [Freelancers Union]
- A year of organizing freelance journalists [Organizing Work]
- 5 unconventional blog promotion tactics to attract more readers [Freelancers Union]
- I was skeptical of unions. Then I joined one [Vox]
Recently on Story Board:
- Tools for freelancers: The right tools can make your freelance business run more smoothly and allow you to spend more time on the creative work that earns you money. Here are a few of the best tools for freelancers we’ve run across lately…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
Tools for freelancers
Savvy freelancers are always looking for ways to streamline their workflow. The right tools can make your freelance business run more smoothly and allow you to spend more time on the creative work that earns you money. Here are a few of the best tools for freelancers we’ve run across lately.
Transcription
For freelance journalists, transcription can be one of the most time-consuming parts of the job. While it’s often useful to listen back to full interviews and type out transcripts, shortcuts can be helpful — especially during busy times.
Otter is a transcription service that allows you to record interviews on your phone or in a web browser. You can also import or sync recordings from other services. You’ll get real-time streaming transcripts and searchable notes. “You can get 600 minutes per month free, and if it works well for you, there’s paid premium service.
And if you do prefer to transcribe your interviews manually, oTranscribe is still the best tool we’ve found for manual transcription.
Rate calculator
It’s important for freelancers to know what their work is worth. One way to think about how much you should be charging is by calculating how much you need to make per year and working backwards to figure out an hourly rate. This rate calculator can help you work that out.
Clipping saver
The internet can be a fickle and rapidly-changing place. If you’re a freelance writer, you might have had the experience of losing online clippings when publishers you’ve written for have gone under. It’s a good idea to screenshot your work, but turning those screenshots into PDFs can be a time consuming process.
This personal clipping service is an easy solution. Sign in with Twitter, enter the URLs of your work into the search field and Save My News will keep an archive of all of your published online work. Easy!
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer August 13-19
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, communications, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Workshop: The Business of Writing and Editing [AMPA]
- Canadian Media Guild throws support to FRIENDS’ We Choose campaign [CMG]
- You Must Be This Conservative To Ride: The Inside Story of Postmedia’s Right Turn [Canadaland]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to Write a Helpful Headline People Will Want to Click [The Freelancer]
- How Trans Journalists are Challenging—and Changing—Journalism [Nieman Reports]
- 25 Editing Tips for Tightening Your Copy [The Write Life]
- Why you’re not hearing about America’s wars [Mother Jones]
- How to Launch a Freelance Writing Career: Answers to 5 Common Questions [The Write Life]
- 10 ways to get the writing juices flowing [PR Daily]
- How to tell good feedback from bad [Freelancers Union]
Recently on Story Board:
- Webinar — Covering Provincial Politics: Join us for a webinar that will introduce journalism students and less experienced reporters to the basics of covering provincial politics. You’ll learn who the key players are, which areas of policy are widely covered and which get less attention, how to find information and what it’s like to be part of the press gallery covering Premier Doug Ford…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
Webinar: Covering Provincial Politics
Photo by Al_HikesAZ via Flickr.
Provincial policy touches every part of Canadian life. Schools, hospitals and police forces rely on provincial governments for funding; employers and landlords have to follow a provincial government’s laws.
Join us for a webinar that will introduce journalism students and less experienced reporters to the basics of covering provincial politics. You’ll learn who the key players are, which areas of policy are widely covered and which get less attention, how to find information and what it’s like to be part of the press gallery covering Premier Doug Ford.
“Covering Provincial Politics” is scheduled for Saturday September 7 at 10 am PST / 1 pm EST. It will be led by Emma Paling, who took on the Queen’s Park beat for HuffPost Canada in 2018 after three years as one of the site’s news editors. Emma graduated with a Combined Honours degree in journalism and history from Carleton University in 2014.
To register for this webinar click on this link. If you’re a CMG Freelance member, enter the code “CMG-FL” when you are asked for an affiliation code. If you’re a CWA Canada Associate Member please enter the code “CWA-AM.” If you are not a member, you can enter the code “SBoard” to register to participate in this webinar for free.
Live viewings of our webinars are open to everyone. We’ll be making a recorded version available to members of CMG Freelance after the event. For information about the price and benefits of CMG Freelance membership please check out the CMG Freelance website.
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer August 5-12
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, communications, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Postmedia announces refinancing transaction [Postmedia]
- A millennial’s perspective on the future of journalism [J-Source]
- Competition for third annual Fraser MacDougall Prize now open [National NewsMedia Council]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How I Failed at Freelancing — And Why I’m Glad I Did [The Freelancer]
- Get Paid to Write Personal Finance Articles: 18 Outlets to Pitch Now [The Write Life]
- The politics of criticism [CJR]
- Pacific Standard is shutting down, cut off from its major foundation funder [Nieman Lab]
- You don’t have to be a culture zombie to pitch on trend [The Freelancer]
- 5 ways to legitimize your freelance business [Freelancers Union]
- Help clients discover your services with a new feature on LinkedIn [LinkedIn]
- How journalists’ jobs affect their mental health [Journalist’s Resource]
Recently on Story Board:
- Lessons from the Remaking Game Work panel: Labour issues are quickly becoming the norm in the gaming industry. Cultural Workers Organize brought together a panel recently to explore some of the different approaches to alleviating the ongoing stresses that game workers face…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
Lessons from the Remaking Games Work panel
by Christopher Demelo 
Labour issues are quickly becoming the norm in the gaming industry. Layoffs, walk-outs, crunch, poor labour conditions and abuses of power are just a few of the ongoing issues that have been reported over the past few years.
Cultural Workers Organize brought together a panel recently to explore some of the different approaches to alleviating the ongoing stresses that game workers face. The July 17 event was held at 32 Lisgar and hosted by TMAC (Toronto Media Arts Center), which has hosted many games-related events in the past
Austin Walker, an Editor of VICE Games and the host of the podcast Friends at the Table, led the event. Before his career as a critic, he studied the intersection of play and labour at the University of Western Ontario, where he was a Research Associate in the Digital Labour Group.
The other panelists were games industry researcher Johanna Weststar; Jennifer R. Whitson, whose research centres on game developers, digital media surveillance and social influences on software development; animator and experimental game designer Sagan Yee, who is Executive Director of the video game arts not-for-profit organization the Hand Eye Society; Dan Joseph, an organizer with Game Workers Unite Toronto, CWA Canada/Canadian Media Guild organizer Katherine Lapointe; and Tannara Yelland, who was co-founder of the Vice Canada union drive.
Austin Walker started the evening off by urging game workers to think critically about working conditions in the industry.
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Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer July 16-22
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, communications, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Media fund panel asks Ottawa to help small newsrooms and spend ad dollars at home [J-Source]
- UBC researchers lead $2.5-million journalism innovation project [J-Source]
- The Guardian paves the way for Canadian media to be more blunt about climate change [Canadaland]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- BuzzFeed reaches deal to recognize union after months of talks [Bloomberg]
- The biggest lessons I learned in the first six months of freelancing [Freelancers Union]
- Tip: Use this contract advice for freelance journalists [Journalism.co.uk]
- Interviewing sources about traumatic experiences [Open Notebook]
- 5 Simple Steps to Write a Headline Your Editor Will Love [The Write Life]
- Not the gig economy: on the immense value of the growing freelancer ‘project economy’ [LSE Business Review]
- Get Noticed: 7 Tips for Writing a Killer Freelance Resume [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- Don’t make these freelance contract mistakes [Freelancers Union]
Recently on Story Board:
- The Born Freelancer on the True Value of a First Paid Job: Up to that moment in my very young life I had done relevant courses, spent time volunteering at community stations and passionately studied the media. I highly recommend all of these activities. But none of them will ever teach you more than your first paid media job, whatever it is…
- Media freedom global pledge comes up short says CWA Canada: A media freedom global pledge that emerged from a London conference is laudable, but doesn’t go far enough, said CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon, who attended the July 10-11 gathering…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
The Born Freelancer on the True Value of a First Paid Job
This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
It’s a warm day in July so I’ve selected a sloppy old t-shirt to wear while writing this post.
It’s faded over the years but has served me well. It even has splotches of paint on it from when I removed it off “active wear” duty to “wear when painting walls” duty.
But that’s not why I’ve kept it.
It originates from the first commercial radio station I worked at on-air. (One of my many parallel freelance career threads). It displays the station logo, frequency and call letters from an era when they still branded themselves that way.
I’ve kept it because of the memories it evokes.
It’s a reminder how critical that first paid work experience was to my subsequent career. Up to that moment in my very young life I had done relevant courses, spent time volunteering at community stations and passionately studied the media. I highly recommend all of these activities.
But none of them will ever teach you more than your first paid media job, whatever it is.
It’s a numbers game
Media freedom global pledge comes up short: CWA Canada
A media freedom global pledge that emerged from a London conference is laudable, but doesn’t go far enough, said CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon, who attended the July 10-11 gathering.
“If you really want to make things better, you’ve got to hit the offenders in the pocket book,” said O’Hanlon. “Do that and things will improve overnight.”
In advance of the Global Conference for Media Freedom co-hosted by the Canadian and British governments, he said the media union had four recommendations for Ottawa that would “have a tremendous impact.”
Chief among them was to form a coalition of progressive governments to establish an agreement on promoting press freedom, as well as an action plan to pressure countries that continue to hinder free expression. “This should include economic sanctions along with individual sanctions against government leaders and officials that would prevent travel and the transfer of funds. We also support the idea of a rapid response mechanism to deal with threats to journalists.”
CWA Canada also called on governments to:
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