Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer July 9-15
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:
- “Thunder Bay” podcast to be adapted for TV [J-Source]
- Canadian Media Is Getting A Bailout. Its Freelancers Aren’t. [Canadaland]
- Meet BIPOC of Publishing in Canada, a new industry collective looking to foster connections and support [Quill and Quire]
- Vice reporter Ben Makuch loses final bid to block RCMP demand for background material [J-Source]
- Globe and Mail staff member tweets that 79 people are taking buyouts at his newspaper [Georgia Straight]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to Start Writing a Book (For Real This Time) [The Write Life]
- 5 tips for balancing wellness and freelance work [Freelancers Union]
- 3 Writing Jobs You Might Not Know Existed [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- New international press card will help keep freelance journalists safe [Frontline Club]
- How to ask for feedback from editors [Open Notebook]
- Ten essential resources for nonfiction writers [The Writer Magazine]
- 4 key tips for reporting on and writing about people with disabilities [Journo Resources]
- Why you, a freelancer, deserve some guilt-free time off [Freelancers Union]
Recently on Story Board:
- Toronto Remaking Game Work Forum July 17: Join us at a public forum with game developers, media work researchers, and digital labour activists to discuss working conditions and social inequalities in the video games industry and strategies to improve conditions in digital media…
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.
Toronto: Remaking Game Work forum July 17
Studio closures, harassment, crunch time, rumblings of unionization – game labour issues currently have unprecedented public profile.
Join us at a public forum with game developers, media work researchers, and digital labour activists to discuss working conditions and social inequalities in the video games industry and strategies to improve conditions in digital media.
The event is scheduled for Wednesday, July 17 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the mezzanine of the Toronto Media Arts Centre (32 Lisgar St). It will be moderated by Austin Walker, the Editor of VICE Games. Six speakers – game workers, union organizers, and researchers – will participate in a moderated conversation, followed by Q&A and refreshments.
This event is hosted by CWA Canada, Cultural Workers Organize, Game Workers Unite Toronto, and Toronto Media Arts Centre. It marks the launch of “Contested Formations of Digital Game Labor,” a special issue of the journal Television & New Media, currently freely available as an open-access publication.
For more information about the guest speakers, or to register for your free ticket to this event, check out this Eventbrite page.
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer July 3-8
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:
- Where is the disability beat in Canada? [Canadaland]
- Vice reporter loses final bid to block RCMP demand for background material [CTV]
- How to extend your contract [Gig.gd]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- School’s out for summer! How to work in a full house [Freelancers Union]
- This is an non-obnoxious way to follow up on a cold email [Fast Company]
- How to turn negative self talk into positive action [Freelancers Union]
- Successful launch of the legal action fund [National Writers Union]
- How to Spot and Stop Burnout Before You Give Up On Freelancing [The Freelancer]
- Why freelancers should consider leaving megacities [Work Notes]
- Why younger generations are embracing labour unions [Rewire]
- Tip of the day: Become an expert note taker [Journalism.co.uk]
Recently on Story Board:
- The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #41 — Ayesha Barmania: Ayesha Barmania is an independent journalist, radio producer, audio artist and podcast consultant based in Peterborough. They’re the co-host and co-producer of the Peterborough Currents podcast, which was recently nominated for a 2019 Digital Publishing Award…
- Worker Rights in the Gig Economy: With employment activists working in communities to build better jobs and workers in several app-based jobs voting to unionize, precarious workers in Ontario are developing a better awareness of their situation and working together to change it…
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 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #41 — Ayesha Barmania
In this regular feature, Story Board asks Canadian freelancers to share a few details about their work habits and their strategies for navigating the ups and downs of freelance life.
Ayesha Barmania is an independent journalist, radio producer, audio artist and podcast consultant based in Peterborough, Ontario. They’re the co-host and co-producer of the Peterborough Currents podcast, which was recently nominated for a 2019 Digital Publishing Award.
Ayesha took the time to speak with Story Board recently about setting your freelance rates, the advantages of working on passion projects, and the importance of mentorship for emerging journalists.
How did Peterborough Currents come about?
I live in Peterborough and I was involved in community radio here for a number of years and still am. I was working for CBC Toronto but still was living in Peterborough and pitching a lot of Peterborough stories to CBC and some were getting picked up, but then it hit home for me that there wasn’t really a dedicated current affairs radio or podcast program for the Peterborough area.
So I used some resources with community radio and started this as a podcast called Peterborough Currents. There are all these amazing stories in our community but no one is publishing them as long-form docs. So my co-host Will Pearson and I decided “why don’t we do it?”
Read the rest of this post »
Worker Rights in the Gig Economy
by Laura Kenins
Photo by Don Genova
Precarious employment is never far from the minds of those in journalism.
Even for those lucky enough to still hold full-time jobs, staff at most news outlets wonder when the next round of layoffs is coming. Rarely does a day pass when one’s Twitter feed doesn’t have at least one former staff journalist announcing their return to full-time freelancing and asking for leads on work.
Over the years, freelancers have had more and more company in precarious employment of all varieties. But even as the Ontario government erodes labour protections and as the federal election approaches, there’s reason for hope.
With employment activists working in communities to build better jobs and workers in several app-based jobs voting to unionize, precarious workers in Ontario are developing a better awareness of their situation and working together to change it.
Representatives from several groups gathered in west end Toronto on June 26 to discuss their strategies and hopes at an event called Worker Rights in the Gig Economy. Panelists at the event included former and prospective NDP MP Andrew Cash of the Urban Worker Project, United Way policy worker and researcher Stephanie Procyk, organizer Nadira Begum of the Workers’ Action Centre, the CMG’s Lise Lareau, Foodora couriers and union organizers Ahmad Jarbou and Ivan Ostos, and Jan Simpson, president of CUPW (with whom the Foodora workers have opted to unionize).
Hours after 300 Uber drivers in Toronto announced their unionization with United Food and Commercial Workers, the UFCW’s Pablo Godoy was also able to make a last-minute appearance to speak to issues facing the drivers.
Read the rest of this post »
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer June 24-July 2
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:
- Can women’s media ever be “authentically” feminist? [J-Source]
- Jesse Wente on the mainstream media’s media’s odious defence of genocide [Now Toronto]
- Canadian news site The Post Millennial blurs line between journalism and conservative “pamphleteering” [CBC]
- Margaret Wente leaving the Globe and Mail, 5 layoffs following May buyout offer [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Survival tips for a summer slowdown [Freelancers Union]
- The Washington Post is reinventing travel writing [Poynter]
- Telltale signs that you’re overworked [Freelancers Union]
- Five ways to beat the stress of freelance journalism [Journalism.co.uk]
- How to Deal With Copyright Infringements [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- The 6 best countries for digital nomads [Freelancers Union]
- Some of your skills and talents can cause burnout. Here’s how to identify them [Fast Company]
- How women can get what they want in a negotiation [HBR]
Recently on Story Board:
- Freelance Skill Share Extraordinaire — Pitfalls and Pitching for Freelancers: How can we write the best pitches? How do we negotiate contracts? And for some: How do I get started? Navigating freelance challenges to survive and thrive in the gig economy was the focus of a highly interactive workshop held recently in Winnipeg, Manitoba…
- The Expert Panel on Modern Federal Labour Standards: In early May I was asked, in my role as president of the Canadian Media Guild Freelance Branch, to participate a panel sponsored by the federal government aimed at reviewing and updating working conditions within any federally-regulated workforce…
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.
Freelance Skill Share Extraordinaire – Pitfalls and Pitching for Freelancers
by Lesley Evans Ogden
Assemble any group of freelancers at a networking event, or Google “freelance challenges,” and a common set of discussion topics tends to emerge.
How can we write the best pitches? How do we negotiate contracts? And for some: How do I get started?
Navigating freelance challenges to survive and thrive in the gig economy was the focus of a highly interactive workshop held recently in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Treaty 1 lands, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and homeland of the Métis Nation.
Though part of the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada 2019 conference, the tips that emerged are relevant to freelancers more broadly.
Freelancers of all experience levels worked in small groups, prompted with a series of discussion questions, and shared experiences, challenges, and solutions. Small groups then shared key tips with the wider group.
Topics summarized here are common pitfalls of freelancing, and pitching. The session was conceived and facilitated by Canadian freelancers Lesley Evans Ogden and Niki Wilson. Big thanks to all attendees of Freelance Skill Share Extraordinaire on May 25, 2019. Our crowd-sourced words of wisdom are captured below.
Pitfalls of freelancing
The Expert Panel on Modern Federal Labour Standards
by Don Genova
In early May I was asked, in my role as president of the Canadian Media Guild Freelance Branch, to participate in an exercise called ‘The Expert Panel on Modern Federal Labour Standards’, a panel sponsored by the federal government aimed at reviewing and updating working conditions within any federally-regulated workforce. The panel will collate all the information they gather and come up with a series of recommendations for the Liberal government by June 30th.
My session with the panel took place in Vancouver with most of the panel members in a downtown hotel and one of them on the phone from the Maritimes. Besides me, there were only two other participants — a representative from a union representing food service industry workers, and a labour lawyer with broad worldwide experience in different governmental jurisdictions.
As the session began, I soon realized that, as usual, media freelancers are odd ducks when it comes to the way we work. First of all, only six percent (about 900,000) of all employees in Canada work in federally regulated workplaces. For media freelancers, this means radio and television stations, as well as telephone and internet providers. All those other companies that commonly use media freelancers such as magazines, newspapers, and other content producers aren’t federally regulated. So any changes in labour standards that may benefit freelancers would affect a small fraction of the people who use the services of freelancers.
I gave a short presentation to the panel members about the kind of work that members of our union provide and the types of services CMG Freelance provides to help them in their careers. The panel members also wanted to hear our answers to a series of issues and questions they were posing as they traveled across the country.
This gave me another opportunity to point out how different the way most freelancers work is compared to more traditional employees.
Here’s a sampling of the issues and questions:
- Minimum Wage:
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer June 18-24
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:
- Canadian media had the tools to to cover the MMIWG report with the respect it deserved. They botched it anyway [J-Source]
- Cheers with Peers June 24 [PWAC]
- How newspapers are using podcasts to grow their audiences and revenue [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Make sure you have these skills if you want to work from home [Market Watch]
- Dutch to act on freelancer pay, set minimum rate of €16 per hour [Dutch News]
- Covering Indigenous Communities with Respect and Sensitivity [Open Notebook]
- 5 plan-ahead tips to make digital client meetings more effective [Freelancers Union]
- Top 5 Productivity Hacks for Freelancers [crissibeth]
- How to Write a Professional Twitter Bio [Lifehacker]
- 10 must-join Facebook groups for journalists [Journalism.co.uk]
- No male editor has ever accepted my pitches on abortion [CJR]
- Why making a living as a freelance journalist is so difficult [Medium]
- A ‘disappointed’ BuzzFeed newsroom walks off the job [CJR]
Recently on Story Board:
- Five Things Freelancers Should Know About Conferences… And Why You Should Attend a Few: For freelancers, conferences are a double whammy: attend the right conference and you’ll get the ideas and the contacts for interviews at the same time…
- Toronto Worker Rights in the Gig Economy forum: Workers of all kinds are invited to a forum called “Worker Rights in the Gig Economy” on Wednesday, June 26 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at New Horizons…
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.
Five Things Freelancers Should Know About Conferences… and why you should attend a few
By George Butters 
Ever heard of a fishing hole?
That’s a place where fish congregate, and where savvy fishers go with line and hook.
Conferences are where ideas are said to congregate, along with the people who espouse them. So for freelancers, conferences are a double whammy: attend the right conference and you’ll get the ideas and the contacts for interviews at the same time. Fortunately, unlike a good fishing hole, they tend not to be kept secret by the locals.
If you’re an experienced freelancer with one or two specialties, you’re probably already aware of conferences within your areas of expertise. If you are aware, but aren’t taking advantage, you should consider attending at least the most influential conference or two each year.
Keep in mind that sector-based conferences come in five flavours: local, provincial, regional, national, and international. So you’ll have to decide how far you’re willing to travel. More and more, you can find conference material online, but it’s not the same as being there. (And this comes from a guy who makes a chunk of his living live streaming conferences.)
