2017 SABEW Canada Best in Business Awards open for submissions
Freelance business writers, it’s time to get your application together for the SABEW Canada Best in Business awards. The 4th annual awards will be given to work published or broadcast during the 2017 calendar year.
There are ten categories for this year’s awards, including investigative, personal finance, breaking news coverage, profile, and long-form and short-form feature. This year there’s also a new category for audio or visual storytelling.
Freelancers who wish to submit their work must be SABEW members in good standing. There’s a special discounted freelancer entry fee of $30 for the awards.
The deadline for entries is midnight Eastern Time on February 16, 2018.
For detailed guidelines or to enter your work for an award, check out SABEW Canada’s website.
Andree Lau on increasing diversity in reporting and the newsroom
by Hannah Daley
Huffington Post editor-in-chief Andree Lau speaks at NASH. Photo by Hannah Daley
As newsrooms across the country strive for greater diversity, HuffPost Canada editor-in-chief Andree Lau says there’s a need for a much more nuanced approach than simply “checking the boxes.”
Lau spoke on January 5th at NASH, the annual Canadian student journalism conference.
This year’s conference, NASH 80: Connect, was hosted by the Ryerson Eyeopener and the Canadian University Press and featured dozens of presenters from the journalism industry, including Lau for her talk on diversity in reporting and the newsrooms.
How do we define diversity?
While race and ethnicity are immediately what come to mind, diversity actually means much more, said Lau.
“It’s not as easy as ‘I talked to a black person, I talked to a Chinese person,’ check, I’m done, my story’s diverse,’” she said.
Rather, diversity includes:
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Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Jan 10-15
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:
- Why trauma and mental health must be discussed in journalism schools [J-Source]
- 3 tips for crafting a winning story from former CBC Nonfiction Prize winner Carrie Mac [CBC Books]
- Statement from VICE Canada Union after the NYTimes article [CMG]
- Opinion: A year of reckoning looms for Canada’s newspapers [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- A survival guide to international freelancing [CJR]
- End of the Year Business Tips for Freelance Writers [The Write Life]
- 12 books that can help you be a better writer in 2018 [Ann Handley]
- If you want to write a book, John McPhee’s advice is indispensable [Poynter]
- I Started the Media Men List [The Cut]
Recently on Story Board:
- Webinar — Reporting on Labour Issues with Sara Mojtehedzadeh: When Toronto Star reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh went undercover on the croissant production line in a Toronto factory, she learned firsthand what workers were experiencing…
- The Born Freelancer on Making New Year’s Resolutions: You could say that dreams constitute our raw material. They creatively nourish us and keep most of us moving forward. It’s just that making them into a resolution this time of year tends to add an unnecessary extra weight to them that few of us can comfortably shoulder…
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: Reporting on Labour Issues with Sara Mojtehedzadeh
When Toronto Star reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh went undercover on the croissant production line in a Toronto factory, she learned firsthand what workers were experiencing.
“I was really conscious of keeping up with the pace of production and not losing my job and doing things right and making sure I didn’t get fired,” she told Story Board during a phone interview.
She was so preoccupied with the tasks at hand, she said, that she had no time to think about her safety around the powerful machinery in the industrial bakery.
“I think that’s exactly why these workers are vulnerable. Because you don’t get the training and you don’t have enough time to think about your surroundings and you don’t necessarily have the experience or knowledge to know what is a safety hazard and what isn’t,” she said.
Her undercover stint resulted in an explosive story about working conditions at the factory and the company’s extensive use of vulnerable temporary workers.
Mojtehedzadeh is presenting a webinar for CMG Freelance on January 31st in which she’ll share her experiences and the lessons she’s learned during three years spent reporting on the changing workplace and workers’ rights.
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The Born Freelancer on Making New Year’s Resolutions
The trouble with most New Year’s resolutions is that they are almost always doomed. They are unrealistic and wholly out of character. And of course any less-doomed resolutions made at the same time also tend to be discarded by association.”This is the year I’m going to write the great Canadian novel!”
“Impossible!”
“Really? OK. Well then, forget it… and my other resolution about losing 5 pounds by summer.”
Not that we should ever too easily concede that our most deeply cherished dreams are impossible. It’s often our job after all to dream dreams for a living and to capture other’s dreams in print.
You could say that dreams constitute our raw material. They creatively nourish us and keep most of us moving forward. It’s just that making them into a resolution this time of year tends to add an unnecessary extra weight to them that few of us can comfortably shoulder.
—
So – is it even worthwhile to consider making resolutions?
Yes, I believe it is – but only if they are sensible decisions, consistent with your character, that you would be making anyway regardless of the New Year.
My “resolutions”
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Jan 5-9
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:
- 2018 TWUC Short Prose Competition call for submissions [TWUC]
- How journalists in the movies affect the public’s trust [J-Source]
- Six Canadian writers on some of the best and worst advice they’ve received [CBC]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to Admit You Don’t Have Experience and Still Ace the Interview [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- The 100 Best Writing Websites, 2018 Edition [The Write Life]
- How Freelance Writers Can Use HARO to Produce Better Work [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- How to reboot your freelancing career in 2018 [Freelancers Union]
- Perspectives in photojournalism: 8 pitching tips for photojournalists [IJNet]
- 7 Expert Tips for Freelance Writers Who Want to Work From Anywhere [The Write Life]
- 12 media podcasts journalists should listen to in 2018 [Journalism.co.uk]
- Why clients aren’t lined up outside your door (and what to do about it) [Freelancers Union]
Recently on Story Board:
- Freelancers use social media to learn business of freelancing, build community: When graphic designer Saeid Halvaeian quit his day job and turned to freelancing full time in 2013, he had no plans to launch six Meetup and Facebook groups for freelancers across the United States…
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.
Freelancers use social media to learn business of freelancing, build community
This post is the twelfth in a series called “E-Lancer Writes,” exploring the working conditions, rights and collective organizing strategies of freelance journalists, interns and other low-wage or temporary digital media workers.
By Errol Salamon
When graphic designer Saeid Halvaeian quit his day job and turned to freelancing full time in 2013, he had no plans to launch six Meetup and Facebook groups for freelancers across the United States.
Although Halvaeian, a Houston-based freelancer, was comfortable with the creative side of graphic design, he knew little about the business side of freelancing. So he launched a Meetup.com group called Houston Freelance Graphic Designers to learn more. Five people attended the first monthly meetup at a local coffee shop to talk about the freelance business.
“The basic premise was getting people together around a common interest and meeting in the real world,” Halvaeian said in a phone interview. “My original intent was to get information from people who have their own businesses and learn from them, and take the lessons I learn from them and use them in my business.”
Halvaeian started the Facebook group for members to communicate online between the meetups.
“We had such great conversations once a month, so I thought, ‘What a shame we meet only 12 times out of 365 days. Let’s establish some sort of way to communicate online,’” he said. “[The Facebook group] is a place where, every day, people get to ask questions and get answers from any of the members.”
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Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Dec 28-Jan 4
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:
- Two top execs of Vice Media suspended over sexual harassment allegations [Canadian Magazines]
- The year that was in Canadian Magazines 2017 [Canadian Magazines]
- Is Donald Trump journalism’s secret friend? [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Please stop sending awful pitches [The Writing Cooperative]
- Some legends of longform on the stories we need next [Nieman Storyboard]
- Resolve to master new tools, improve your social media game and fix those passwords [Poynter]
- 4 Ways to Develop a Unique Writing Voice [The Write Life]
- Award to Splinter’s Nolan highlights union advances in digital news media [Poynter]
- Everything Classic Children’s Literature Taught Me About Writing [The Write Life]
Recently on Story Board:
- New Year’s resolutions, freelance style: We canvassed over a dozen writers working in a broad range of non-fiction genres; from travel writing to politics to science to energy to the environment. The questions were “Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution for your writing/journalism career, and how did it work out?” And, “Are you making any resolutions for 2018?”…
- News Literacy Project sees big uptake in Canadian schools: When the News Literacy Project launched its classroom program in 2009, the term “fake news” had not yet achieved notoriety. But Alan Miller, the project’s president and CEO, had already realized there was a growing challenge, particularly among young people, to interpret online information
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.
New Year’s Resolutions, Freelance Style
by Steven Threndyle
Between the time the last gift is unwrapped on Christmas Day and the moment the first champagne bottle is popped on New Year’s Eve, many of us take stock of “the year that was” and set our sights on the year ahead.
In order not to feel regretful when this introspective period arrives at the same time next year, many of us undertake New Year’s resolutions—the vast majority of which we’ll fail at. (A cursory scan of news stories puts the ‘fail’ rate at somewhere between 80 and 92 percent.)
If there is one thing writers know, it’s rejection and failure, so the very nature of the writing life might lead us to avoid this exercise altogether. We wanted to find out, so we canvassed over a dozen writers working in a broad range of non-fiction genres; from travel writing to politics to science to energy to the environment. The questions were “Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution for your writing/journalism career, and how did it work out?” And, “Are you making any resolutions for 2018?”
The initial response was not encouraging, as travel writer Chuck Thompson wrote simply, “no, no, and no.” Perhaps the most pragmatic answer was provided by NYC-based writer Caitlin Kelly, who tersely replied “I don’t make them. Market forces are beyond my control.”
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News Literacy Project sees big uptake in Canadian schools
When the News Literacy Project launched its classroom program in 2009, the term “fake news” had not yet achieved notoriety. But Alan Miller, the project’s president and CEO, had already realized there was a growing challenge, particularly among young people, to interpret online information.
“Sometimes we say we were the antidote to fake news long before it became such a popular term,” Miller told Story Board during a phone interview.
The non-profit project works with teachers and journalists to help students learn to distinguish fact from fiction online. Miller, who was a reporter with the Los Angeles Times for 21 years and spent 14 years on the paper’s investigative team in Washington, said many young students believe that all information is created equal – that anything published online must be true. By high school, he said, students are often quite cynical, believing that all news is driven by bias or agenda, whether personal, political or commercial.
After the 2016 U.S. election, Miller said, the revelations about viral rumours, conspiracies and hoaxes were a wake-up call to the seriousness of the problem and the threat that it represents to democracy.
“We feel like we’ve gone from being a voice in the wilderness to an answer to a prayer. One of my board members said ‘what does it feel like to be an overnight sensation after nine years of hard work?’” he said.
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