Toronto media mixer: Beyond Diversity
Toronto-area media students and freelancers, you’re invited to the free Beyond Diversity mixer on Wednesday, October 11th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Page One Cafe (106 Mutual St).
From the “appropriation prize” fiasco, to the editorial decision to protect the identity of a woman who used a racial slur, these incidents over the last few months have highlighted the need for more discussion on how to diversify the voices, stories and editorial control in the Canadian media.
This mixer and discussion that will bring together journalists and freelancers to tackle these issues. Drawing on personal experience, they’ll share advice for navigating a career path in the industry, while also changing it from within. They’ll discuss strategies for making and claiming spaces for black, brown and indigenous voices; equity policies and practices that news organizations should be implementing; and how we can better support each other in building sustainable careers.
Featured speakers include Alicia Elliot, a Tuscarora writer living in Brantford, Ontario whose essay “A Mind Spread Out on the Ground” won a 2017 National Magazine Award, and Vicky Mochama, who writes about race, gender, politics and culture as the national columnist for Metro News Canada.
This is event is being organized by CMG Freelance and CWA Canada. Tickets are free, but please register to reserve your space at this link. There will be time before and after the panel to network and chat with other freelancers, media workers, students, and guest speakers. Snacks and drinks will be provided.
Webinar: The Art of Lifestyle Writing
One of the best things about lifestyle journalism is how much this beat is about real life. From what we should be eating, to how to interact with our partners, to which health issue matters the most in the community, lifestyle journalism has the power to change how people live.
If you’d like to learn more about lifestyle writing, join us on Wednesday, October 11th at 3:00 p.m. E.T. for a webinar with writer Arti Patel called “The art of lifestyle writing.”
In this workshop, you will learn skills necessary for lifestyle writing: how to interview lifestyle experts, how to find good lifestyle stories, and the importance of hearing from various voices.
Webinar leader Arti Patel is an award-winning reporter and editor with a focus on health, women’s issues, relationships, and awareness around racism and gender equality. She started as an intern at Huffington Post Canada’s Toronto office and worked as an editor in the lifestyle department for almost six years. With a deep passion for storytelling that goes back to her Ryerson University journalism days, she has also dabbled in long-form features on mental health and divorce, produced videos and hosted several segments for lifestyle channels.
You can register for the webinar at this link. CMG Freelance and CWA Canada Associate Members can use their membership numbers to register. For a limited time, CMG Freelance is making live viewing of our webinars available to non-members. If you’d like to watch this one, you can use the special code “Storyboard” in place of a membership number.
Archived webinars are available for viewing by CMG Freelance and CWA Canada Associate Members on this members-only page on the CMG Freelance website. Subjects of previous webinars include financial planning, social media and cyber security for freelancers.
Students, volunteers and emerging media workers can sign up for a free CWA Associate Membership right here.
For information about the price and benefits of CMG Freelance membership check out the CMG Freelance website.
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Sept 19-25
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:
- National Post newsroom staff file to unionize [CWA Canada]
- Vice urges RCMP to drop demand for materials if accused terrorist long dead [J-Source]
- Journalism Jobs: September 20 [J-Source]
- Questions to ask yourself if you’re looking to write a book [Content Writers Group]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Slay and Get Paid: How Introverts Can Kill It at Negotiating [Skillcrush]
- The Three Biggest Pitch Mistakes This Author Sees Every Day [The Write Life]
- Think Local, Write Global [Mediabistro]
- What I’ve learned in my first year as a freelance journalist [Medium]
- What to do when you hit freelancer burnout [Freelancers Union]
- How to Stop Getting Distracted While You Work [Megan Minns]
- How Your Flexibility is Actually Hurting Your Writing Career [The Write Life]
- Pitch Your Niche: Write What You Love, Love What You Write [Mediabistro]
Recently on Story Board:
- Call for interviews with freelance and contract media workers: Have you worked as a freelance or contract employee in digital journalism in Canada or the United States at any time between 2013 and 2017? Researcher Errol Salamon would like to hear about your experiences for a textbook on labour issues facing media workers in North America..
- The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #35 — Geoff Dembicki: Geoff Dembicki got into journalism at a strange time. He graduated from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2008, when the financial crisis and other troubles were causing the folding and downsizing of newspapers around the world…
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.
Call for interviews with freelance and contract media workers
Have you worked as a freelance or contract employee in digital journalism in Canada or the United States at any time between 2013 and 2017? Researcher Errol Salamon would like to hear about your experiences for a textbook on labour issues facing media workers in North America.
Salamon is a Canadian Media Guild freelance member, postdoctoral researcher/visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, and contributing editor at J-Source. He’s interested in hearing about your daily work experiences and working conditions as a freelance or contract employee in digital journalism.
Your responses will be kept confidential and you can back out at any time. They will become part of a book-length account of the working conditions and labour issues facing media workers in North America, including interns, freelancers, and other digital media workers. This project is supported by CWA Canada, the Canadian Media Guild’s parent union. It aims to raise awareness about media workers’ rights and determine best practices for quality journalism in a digital age.
If you’re willing to be interviewed, you’re asked to complete this short introductory questionnaire and then you’ll be contacted to set up a time to talk.
The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #35 — Geoff Dembicki
In this regular feature, Story Board asks Canadian writers to share a few details about their work habits and their strategies for navigating the ups and downs of freelance life.
Geoff Dembicki got into journalism at a strange time. He graduated from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2008, when the financial crisis and other troubles were causing the folding and downsizing of newspapers around the world.
“Basically, I graduated from school feeling very lost and confused,” he told Story Board during a recent interview.
Nine years later, Dembicki has just released his first book. And it’s already won him an award. Are We Screwed?: How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change is the winner of the 2017 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for books.
He took the time to speak with Story Board recently about taking risks, finding community, and the importance of mentors in the lives of young journalists.
What happened after you graduated from journalism school?
Read the rest of this post »
Off the Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Sept 12-18
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:
- Here’s what Jessica Johnson has planned for The Walrus [J-Source]
- Here’s why editorial staff at the National Post have started a unionization drive [J-Source]
- National Post newsroom workers look to unionize [Globe and Mail]
- Applications open for 2017 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- 3 tips for feeling empowered as a freelancer [Freelancers Union]
- NWU and The Nation sign freelance agreement [National Writers Union]
- Writers dish on the scoops that slipped away [CJR]
- How to Network Your Way Into a Successful Writing Career [The Write Life]
- The one way of thinking that gets you ahead in life [Freelancers Union]
- How to Prevent Every Writer’s Worst Nightmare: Losing Your Work [The Write Life]
- Covering controversial issues on campus [Nieman Reports]
Recently on Story Board:
- Freelance journalists and responsible communication: With resources in decline at many media outlets, investigative work and reporting is sometimes left to freelancers. With the changes in the industry, there are ethical, legal and contractual issues that freelance journalists need to be aware of…
- Canadian Writers Group comments on new Globe and Mail freelance agreement: Derek Finkle of the Canadian Writers Group comments on the Globe and Mail’s new freelance agreement…
- National Post newsroom announces union drive: It has been a year of unprecedented events, of things we once thought were beyond the realm of possibility. A reality television star is president of the United States. Ontario’s liquor control board is planning to sell marijuana. And the National Post is unionizing…
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 journalists and responsible communication
By Brittany Duggan
It’s no secret that journalism today is in great flux.
For years, the industry has been negotiating fast-paced digital disruption.
This has required journalism to seek new ways to pay for itself while still serving its civic duty. The decline in resources means, among other things, a decline in the ability to pay for deeper, nuanced, investigated reporting.
With resources in decline at many media outlets, investigative work and reporting is sometimes left to freelancers. With the changes in the industry, there are ethical, legal and contractual issues that freelance journalists need to be aware of.
Freelancers and legal matters
At the same time as resources are shrinking, freelance contracts over the past decade have been increasingly asking freelancers to indemnify publishers from libel lawsuits. This means responsibility for defamation suits resulting from a freelancer’s work is placed entirely on the freelancer.
Signing such contracts is a risky proposition for a freelancer, a subject that you can read more about here and here.
With such contracts becoming more and more common, the risks associated with freelance journalism are increasing. What should freelancers – and indeed all journalists – do to ensure they are on solid legal ground when reporting on controversial topics?
When journalism moves faster, the law has to keep up
Canadian Writers Group comments on new Globe and Mail freelance agreement
National Post newsroom announces union drive
TORONTO, ONT.: It has been a year of unprecedented events, of things we once thought were beyond the realm of possibility. A reality television star is president of the United States. Ontario’s liquor control board is planning to sell marijuana. And the National Post is unionizing.
As a newspaper that has had a conservative editorial stance since its launch in 1998 and has remained Canada’s only major non-unionized newsroom ever since, this will come as a surprise to many. But a lot has changed since 1998. The financial condition of our parent company, Postmedia, has significantly deteriorated. And even though we are Postmedia’s flagship newspaper and our staff have become increasingly responsible for creating content published across the entire chain, we have borne the brunt of cuts. We see unionizing as the best way to protect both ourselves and our readers across the country, who suffer every time the newspaper loses a great reporter, photographer, editor or designer to a buyout or a better-paid job with a competitor.
Last week, Postmedia management opened yet another buyout offer for the National Post newsroom, which means we’ll be losing even more skilled and experienced colleagues. But in recent days, they’ve been telling us they’re interested in hearing our concerns and care about making things better, saying they want us to be “working together in this fight.”
The company’s actions send a different message. In July, the company posted a rare $13 million quarterly profit. That profit came courtesy of a buyout and layoff program that has saved it 20 per cent of salary costs across the chain, in addition to $22.8 million in savings from cutting the benefits and pensions of workers at the National Post and others. Meanwhile, Postmedia executives received $2.3 million in retention bonuses last year — and three of them have left the company since.
We’re unionizing because we love this newspaper. We want the Post and its newsroom staff to have long, bright futures. We have broad support among our colleagues and are planning to file for certification soon.
Please see www.nationalpostunion.ca for more information and updates.
– National Post union committee
Contact:
Katherine Lapointe
klapointe@cwa-scacanada.ca
416-795-8598
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Sept 6-11
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:
- Five totally awesome (and free) resources for journalists [J-Source]
- Announcing the 2017 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards winners [Dave Greber Awards]
- Here are the journalism books and articles you won’t find on your syllabus [J-Source]
- CWA Canada mourns former leader Arnold Amber [CWA Canada]
- How a small New Brunswick company built a client base in Toronto from a $15,000 home office [LinkedIn]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- 7 Social Media Tips For Writers Who Want to Get Noticed [The Write Life]
- Freelancers sue Ebony magazine, claiming $70,000 in unpaid work [Chicago Tribune]
- How to become your editor’s MVP [Mediabistro]
- 5 Ways to Bounce Back When You Lose a Freelance-Writing Client [The Write Life]
- Gauging your options after a career setback [Freelancers Union]
- 25 Must-Read Books About Writing [The Write Life]
Recently on Story Board:
- Back to School – the ABC’s of CBC Freelance Contracts: With the new broadcast season, more local and national programs, radio, TV or digital, will be engaging freelancers to provide material for their shows in the form of interviews (some with recordings, some not), documentaries, columns, photographs, and research or writing, especially for digital purposes…
- Webinar – Twitter for Journalists: With over 328 million active users and over 500 million tweets published each day, Twitter has become a critical business tool. Yet many individuals and businesses still struggle to find ways to integrate Twitter into their marketing strategy…
- The Born Freelancer on Getting Names Right: Names possess almost magical power unlike any other words. Used correctly, they can help foster confidence, trust, empathy and credibility. Incorrect use can be catastrophic. Remembering and getting names right is a necessary facility for any professional freelancer…
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.
