Factual TV/Cineflix class action Q&A and webinar
If you work in factual TV and are wondering what’s going on with the class action lawsuit against Cineflix Canada, you’ll have the opportunity to find out more about it and ask questions next week.
The Canadian Media Guild is holding an interactive webinar and Q&A for anyone interested in finding out more about this legal action. It’s scheduled for Tuesday, November 13 from 7:30 pm to 8:15 pm EST.
During the webinar you’ll hear from the ‘representative plaintiff’, Anna Bourque, about why we need this action now. You’ll be able to ask questions to the lawyer at Cavalluzzo LLP, Tassia Poynter, who is heading up this lawsuit. And we’ll also talk about how forming a union can help us go beyond the class action to make permanent improvements in our industry.
This free interactive webinar is hosted by the CMG’s Fairness in Factual campaign. You can register to participate at this link. You’ll have the option to participate in this webinar anonymously.
A Freelancer’s Guide to Content Marketing
by Steven Threndyle
Freelancers perusing job listings on Indeed or Glassdoor will often come across content marketing writing gigs. It’s a job that requires the imagination of an advertising copywriter, the inquisitiveness and writing discipline of a journalist and a bit of an understanding of data science.
Increasingly, this kind of writing is being outsourced by major brands to digital marketing agencies who then, depending on workflow, assign these stories out to freelancers.
Quietly is a Yaletown-based digital marketing firm led by two successful Vancouver tech-preneurs; Dario Meli from Hootsuite and Sean Tyson from Invoke Media. Using advanced proprietary software to tease out consumer insights, Quietly consults for world-wide brands such as Sotheby’s Realty, PWC and Okta, a Silicon Valley software security company. Quietly seeks to “quietly” nudge consumer awareness through engaging storytelling, rather than bludgeoning them with blatant sales messages (TODAY ONLY—75% OFF!).
Kristin Ramsey is Quietly’s editorial director. She says, “We like to think of the internet as this giant focus group. We ask our clients questions like, ‘How do customers find your company? How does your website currently perform? How would you like your customers to find you?’ In some industries, the average consumer will look at five or six pieces of content before they purchase a product or service. Our data-driven approach uncovers what those pieces of content should be.”
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Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 30-Nov 5
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:
- Make Your Non-Fiction Book a Reality [PWAC Toronto]
- Categories Announced for the 42nd National Magazine Awards [Magazine Awards]
- Journalism While Brown and When to Walk Away [Medium]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- 4 corporate practices that can benefit freelancers, too [The Freelancer]
- Freelancers’ rights come of age as gig economy booms [Techcrunch]
- Be contract smart: 13 copyright terms to know [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- Keep your money in your pocket: Budgeting for freelancers [Freelancers Union]
- Common mistakes journalists make when submitting pitches [IJNet]
- What is lost when contracts bar freelancers from discussing pay? [CJR]
- Report: These 14 countries allow journalists to be killed with impunity [Poynter]
Recently on Story Board:
- Always be closing: How to keep marketing even when busy with projects: It’s tempting, when you have client work, to forget all about marketing and simply bury yourself in the writing. But that is a costly mistake that triggers the freelancer’s curse of feast or famine…
- CMG launches salary survey for factual TV workers: Modelled on a similar survey launched earlier this year in the U.S., the CMG’s survey invites people who work in production, post-production, and operations and administration in the factual TV industry to anonymously share details about their salaries…
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.
Always be closing: How to keep marketing even when busy with projects
By Nkiru Asika
Halloween may be over, but there is nothing more frightening to a freelance writer than the deathly spectre of no work on the horizon; when your clients literally go ghost.
It’s tempting, when you have client work, to forget all about marketing and simply bury yourself in the writing. But that is a costly mistake that triggers the freelancer’s curse of feast or famine.
Staying consistent with marketing while busy with clients is no easy feat. “Always Be Closing” was advice given to the hard-nosed salesmen in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. But it’s probably not what you envisaged when you set out to live “the writer’s life.”
I spoke with three successful freelancers from different writing backgrounds about their approach to balancing their marketing and writing.
SHARON ASCHAIEK, HIGHER ED COMMUNICATIONS
Sharon Aschaiek
Looking back on her 14-year freelance business, writer, editor and content consultant Sharon Aschaiek admits, “I worked on my marketing in fits and starts and when client work would pile up it would fall by the wayside.”
This led to periods of her thinking, “am I ever going to work again?”
Today, her approach is both systematic and strategic, especially since rebranding her business and launching a new website in April 2018 to reflect her specialty of higher education.
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CMG launches salary survey for factual TV workers
The Canadian Media Guild has launched a new salary survey for people who work in factual TV production.
Modelled on a similar survey launched earlier this year in the U.S., the CMG’s survey invites people who work in production, post-production, and operations and administration in the factual TV industry to anonymously share details about their salaries.
The idea of the CMG’s survey is to give workers better leverage in contract negotiations and to encourage pay transparency and pay equity. Wage transparency is thought to be one of the solutions to the gender pay gap. The CMG has previously published two salary surveys of the factual TV industry in Canada.
You can read more about the U.S. pay survey in the Hollywood Reporter. And if you work in factual TV here in Canada you can find a link to the survey on the CMG’s new survey page. Please pass the link along to colleagues and anyone you know who works in the factual TV industry.
Read more about the CMG’s campaign for fairness in factual TV right here.
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 23-29
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 continues its downward spiral [National Observer]
- Journalists need to understand the impact they have on others [J-Source]
- Community newspapers now eligible to compete for National Newspaper Awards [J-Source]
- Author incomes in steep decline [TWUC]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Student Fellow Weekend 2018 Panel: On Pitching [Pulitzer Centre]
- Retainers: How to Get (And Keep) the Holy Grail of Freelancing [The Freelancer]
- How to land your first client: Marketing strategies that work [Freelancers Union]
- The clause freelance writers should fight to remove from their contracts [CJR]
- How to successfully pitch the New York Times (Or, well, anyone else) [Nieman Lab]
Recently on Story Board:
- Getting freelance work with the CBC: Freelancing for CBC isn’t as easy as it used to be, but there are still gigs to be found at the Mother Corp. The “Getting Work With the CBC” panel at the recent Level Up conference in Toronto offered some insights into just where to find 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.
Getting freelance work with the CBC
Tanya Springer, Robyn Urback and Don Genova
Freelancing for CBC isn’t as easy as it used to be, but there are still gigs to be found at the Mother Corp. The “Getting Work With the CBC” panel at the recent Level Up conference in Toronto offered some insights into just where to find it.
The panel was part of a two-day conference co-presented by PWAC and CMG Freelance. CBC Podcasts senior producer Tanya Springer and CBC Opinions editor Robyn Urback, along with moderator Don Genova, went over some of the opportunities available for freelancers at CBC.
CBC Opinion
Because CBC’s journalistic standards prevent CBC staff members from expressing opinions publicly, all CBC Opinions columns (aside from posts written by Urback and Neil Macdonald) come from freelancers.
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Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 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:
- Treat stories about suicide with dignity and compassion [J-Source]
- Call for Judges: 42nd National Magazine Awards [Magazine Awards]
- Can Canada’s artistic middle class be saved? [Toronto Star]
- Combining dog walking and freelancing is the way I get by in a gig economy [CBC]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- No freelancer is an island [The Freelancer]
- Where should you put your politics as a freelancer? [Freelancers Union]
- All The Tricks You Need To Get A Scoop Without Any Contacts [Journo Resources]
- 5 tips for setting your freelance rates [Freelancers Union]
- Should you pitch a journalist via social media? These 3 journalists say no [Muck Rack blog]
- 5 Things to Consider if You Think Freelancing is in Your Future [Inc]
- The Pitch: Can’t wait? A Marie Claire editor tries to answer pitches within 48 hours [Nieman Storyboard]
Recently on Story Board:
- Freelance contracts a hot topic at Level Up conference in Toronto: Read your contracts. That was the overarching message from the opening session at the recent Level Up conference in Toronto…
- Reporting responsibly on labour and class: Alex Press had to do a lot of convincing to get the Washington Post to run her story about 260,000 UPS workers who were threatening to strike. The American workers were fighting a treacherous new contract that would have repercussions not only for unions but for working people in general…
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 contracts a hot topic at Level Up conference in Toronto
Read your contracts.
That was the overarching message from the opening session at the recent Level Up conference in Toronto.
The session, called “Contracts: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” featured lawyer Tassia Poynter, Content Writers Group founder Derek Finkle and freelance science journalist Alison Motluk. CMG Freelance president Don Genova moderated the discussion, which was co-presented by the Professional Writers Association of Canada and CMG Freelance on September 21 at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre.
In her opening remarks, Poynter said it’s surprising that some contracts can be as long as ten pages but fail to include information that freelancers need to know. That information, she said, includes details about money – what you’re getting paid and when. A contract should also include details about when you need to complete the work you’ve been hired to do. Copyright is another word to look out for, said Poynter. Who will hold the copyright and for how long? Will you have the right to resell your work at a later date?
But it was the subject of indemnity clauses that dominated the discussion. Language about liability, said Poynter, is often lengthy and impenetrable. Some contracts spell out what will happen to the publisher in case of a lawsuit, but don’t cover what would happen to the writer.
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Reporting responsibly on labour and class
An impoverished landscape
By Zaid Noorsumar
Alex Press and Sara Mojtehedzadeh at the Covering Class panel. Photo by Jared Ong.
Alex Press had to do a lot of convincing to get the Washington Post to run her story about 260,000 UPS workers who were threatening to strike. The American workers were fighting a treacherous new contract that would have repercussions not only for unions but for working people in general.
“If they accept the work contract, that’s the signal to everyone that they can push down the standards even more,” said Press. “It was remarkable to see that there was no publication really aware of why this story was important.”
The Huffington Post was the only publication that “substantively” covered the story until her own piece ran in the Washington Post, she said. According to Press, this lack of interest by the mainstream media indicates the “anti-labour common sense” in the American media, though she said such attitudes are changing within outlets going through the process of unionization.
Press, an editor at the U.S.-based socialist publication Jacobin, was a panelist alongside Toronto Star Work and Wealth reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh, at an event called “Covering Class: Responsible reporting and barriers in journalism.”
The October 1 event was organized by CWA Canada and drew about 50 media workers, journalism students and freelancers to a downtown Toronto café.
