CANADALAND takes on Alberta’s notoriously slow-paying publisher
The media criticism website CANADALAND published a post this week about Venture Publishing’s habit of paying its freelancers extremely late. Edmonton writer Jay Smith spoke with a number of freelancers as well as Venture Publishing’s CEO and president Ruth Kelly about the publisher’s financial troubles.
The publisher, which owns Alberta Venture and Alberta Oil magazines and also publishes a number of corporate publications, is well known among Alberta freelancers for paying contributors between 6 and 15 months after publication.
Story Board covered this topic two and a half years ago in what has become one of our most widely read and commented upon posts. That post is still receiving comments from freelancers who are waiting for delayed payments, with three new comments arriving this month alone.
Equity issues at VICE Canada highlighted by unionization effort
This post is the seventh 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 
The VICE Canada bargaining committee has been looking closely at equity issues as it prepares for upcoming meetings in August to negotiate a first collective agreement.
The majority of VICE Canada employees voted to join the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) in June.
“When VICE workers first came to the CMG, they expressed concerns about two main equity issues: a concern that women may be paid less than men and that the VICE workforce is ‘whiter’ than the Canadian population,” wrote CMG president Carmel Smyth in an email.
VICE Canada employees announced they were organizing a union in December 2015.
At the beginning of the organizing campaign, VICE workers considered collecting information on individuals’ pay rates.
“We wanted to create a Google form so people could anonymously put in their salaries and add their gender because we were concerned that there would be a huge gap in pay between genders, especially at our office,” said a VICE Canada employee who asked to remain anonymous.
“We didn’t end up getting around to doing that, but that is one thing that we would want to rectify because I know that there—100 percent—is a gap in pay based on gender.”
The Born Freelancer on Why Paying to be Published is Wrong
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? Your input is welcome in 
the comments.
Am I the only person offended by the concept of an author being required to pay to be published?
No, it’s worse than that. It’s being exhorted to pay for the merest chance that you might get published.
You see, there’s no guarantee if you pay so-called “reader’s fees” that you’ll actually get into print.
I’m talking about those purportedly “literary” publications which demand potential authors to pay to have their work read for possible publication and offer little or no remuneration in return.
Authors rule!
In my much younger days if you paid to be published it was called “vanity” publishing. Everyone in the business shunned such practices as it was assumed if you had to pay to get into print you couldn’t be worth reading.
In a parallel example, agents of any description who require potential clients to pay suspiciously-named fees upfront have always been avoided like the plague by any creative type with half a brain. No legitimate agent I have ever encountered behaves in that way. They take their fees from you after they have found you work.
OK, so now today self-publishing is a recognized medium in which authors can take control of their destinies and by-pass conventional publishers and deliver their work directly to the public. But it is in no way to be confused with paying others to be published.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Aug 9-15
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:
- If the ‘gig economy’ is booming, why is ‘freelance’ still considered a dirty word associated with failure? [National Post]
- Journalists need to fight to repeal Bill C-51 [J-Source]
- Torstar cuts 52 jobs, drastically reducing tablet edition staff [Globe and Mail]
- 52 staff laid off at Torstar [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Freelance writers: 3 methods for balancing busy client days [The Write Life]
- What editors want in your personal essay [Mediabistro]
- Sorry digital media kids, “old media” is going to eat you [Digiday]
- Arianna Huffington will leave The Huffington Post [Poynter]
- How to break into freelance journalism [Freelancers Union]
- Thinking about making the jump to freelance? Here’s what you need to know [Poynter]
- “Countries with strong public service media have less rightwing extremism” [The Guardian]
- How much do freelance journalists really earn? [Journalism.co.uk]
Recently on Story Board:
- The 3 R’s of freelancing: Reuse, Repurpose, Resell: You’ve heard that clichéd line, “the gift that keeps giving.” I’m starting to view my stories that way. If I resell an article I’ve written, or repurpose the story and sell a second or third rendition of that story, I am gifting myself—and putting extra money in the bank…
- CWA Canada adopts Canada’s first guidelines on media internships: CWA Canada’s National Representative Council unanimously adopted Canada’s first guidelines on educational media internships at the union’s annual meeting in Calgary from April 29-30 to establish fair standards across the media industry…
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.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Aug 2-8
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:
- Public Editor: Should the Globe fix or ban online comments? [Globe and Mail]
- Why Postmedia is opening a digital development lab in Kitchener-Waterloo [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Can independent community-based news save local journalism? [Journalism.co.uk]
- 5 ways to avoid working with clients who don’t pay [Freelancers Union]
- Note to writers: Don’t read the comments [Freelancers Union]
- The Self-Employed Person’s Guide to Getting Credit [Wisebread]
- Are you ready to quit your day job? Ten questions to ask yourself [Freelancers Union]
- Ditching the DSLR: Why a BBC video journalist filmed only on a mobile phone for a month [journalism.co.uk]
Last week on Story Board:
- The 3 R’s of freelancing: Reuse, Repurpose, Resell: You’ve heard that clichéd line, “the gift that keeps giving.” I’m starting to view my stories that way. If I resell an article I’ve written, or repurpose the story and sell a second or third rendition of that story, I am gifting myself—and putting extra money in the bank…
- CWA Canada adopts Canada’s first guidelines on media internships: CWA Canada’s National Representative Council unanimously adopted Canada’s first guidelines on educational media internships at the union’s annual meeting in Calgary from April 29-30 to establish fair standards across the media industry…
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 3 R’s of freelancing: Reuse, Repurpose, Resell
By Sandra Phinney
You’ve heard that clichéd line, “the gift that keeps giving.” I’m starting to view my stories that way. If I resell an article I’ve written, or repurpose the story and sell a second or third rendition of that story, I am gifting myself—and putting extra money in the bank.
I’ve already done the leg-work, research and interviews, so using the same material more than once is a smart thing to do.
Pierre Berton, master re-seller
Here’s a great story that Silver Donald Cameron told a group a journalists. As Silver Don recalls, he first heard it from Harry Bruce.
It goes like this: “Pierre Berton began writing about the Klondike early in his career. He wrote newspaper columns about it, then radio talks, then magazine pieces, then TV stuff, a children’s book, finally a non-fiction book. He sold it to mainstream publications and offbeat ones like travel magazines or outdoors magazines. I don’t recall the details. In those days of course there were no such things as educational CDs, web sites, video games and so on, as there are now. If there had been he probably would have sold it in all those forms too.”
In the end, Burton had sold the same story in 11 different venues—and was peeved because he couldn’t think of any way he had not sold it, and he wanted to make it an even dozen. After pondering the challenge for some time, he sold a piece to Writer’s Digest on how he’d made an eleven-way play.
Don continues: “I met Berton at a The Canadian Writers Union meeting ten or fifteen years later, and I asked him about the story. Was that actually the way it happened? ‘Close enough,’ Pierre grinned. ‘You’re authorized to keep on telling it that way.'”
Over the years, Silver Don’s become a resell guru himself. For example, his “living beach” project began with a radio spot that he wrote for the federal department of Energy Mines and Resources. He turned it into a radio talk, and then a magazine piece for Canadian Geographic. Using that CanGeo piece as a proposal, he then sold it to the CBC as an Ideas series and they gave him some travel money.
Read the rest of this post »
CWA Canada adopts Canada’s first guidelines on media internships
By Errol Salamon
CWA Canada’s National Representative Council unanimously adopted Canada’s first guidelines on educational media internships at the union’s annual meeting in Calgary from April 29-30 to establish fair standards across the media industry.
The CWA Canada Associate Members Steering Committee wrote the 15 internship guidelines. The union’s list of priorities includes guaranteed minimum honoraria and structured training programs to ensure student interns get valuable work experience and get paid.
Emerging media workers are increasingly expected to complete internships, which are often unpaid and unstructured, as part of postsecondary programs in order to give them a competitive edge in the job market.
These internships may appear to be unfair, as student interns are often required to work full time without pay and temporarily replace permanent employees who are on vacation. That arrangement might be fine for students who can afford to intern in exchange for academic course credits and wait to eventually secure paid and stable employment. But many young interns can’t pay their bills or tuition without at least some compensation.
These standards must change. And they will if other unions, media firms, journalism schools and policymakers follow CWA Canada’s lead. CWA Canada’s internship guidelines could strengthen interns’ rights and better prepare aspiring media workers for future jobs.
Read the rest of this post »
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer July 26-Aug 2
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 demanding to publish a suicide note is callous and unethical [The Tyee]
- Six months on the Chronicle Herald picket line [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Want to write for magazines? Do this first [The Write Life]
- How to stop email from taking over your life [Freelancers Union]
- How to cope when a freelance writing client dumps you [The Write Life]
- Hey, That’s My Story! What to Do When Credit Is Due [The Freelancer]
- Five Ways to Optimize Your Workspace for Productivity [Lifehacker]
- How to Become a More Productive Writer: 7 Helpful Tips [HubSpot]
- Ireland’s journalists get younger as experienced staff depart [The Guardian]
- How to Market Yourself as a Freelance Writer: 4 Mistakes to Avoid [The Write Life]
- For Freelancers, Are Blogs Still Important? [The Freelancer]
- What Happens When Your Editor Leaves? Advice for Freelance Writers [The Write Life]
Last week on Story Board:
- The end of local news? How hedge funds are taking over journalism: “Like a slow motion car wreck, you see it time and time again.” That’s how Emilie Rusch described the dangerous new trend of vulture hedge funds destroying local newsrooms…
- Freelancer meet-up in Toronto August 3: Toronto freelancers, you’re invited to a CMG Freelance meet-up on Wednesday, August 3rd at Bar Wellington (520 Wellington St W) from 6 to 8 p.m…
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 end of local news? How hedge funds are taking over journalism
by Ranziba Nehrin, CWA Associate Member
Next Generation Summit delegates on a labour tour of Detroit, walking away from an impromptu #NewsMatters rally at the Detroit News Building.
“Like a slow motion car wreck, you see it time and time again.”
That’s how Emilie Rusch described the dangerous new trend of vulture hedge funds destroying local newsrooms.
Rusch, a reporter at The Denver Post, spoke last week in Detroit, Michigan at the Communications Workers of America’s 2016 Next Generation Summit.
Panelists Sara Steffens, CWA Secretary-Treasurer, and Rusch, representing TNG-CWA Local 37074, spoke about the troubling phenomenon of hedge funds buying hometown newspapers and destroying good jobs and good journalism for the sake of profits.
Steffens, a former journalist, outlined the fight against one company: the hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Rusch provided her insights as an overworked reporter in a shrinking newsroom.
Both argued that newspapers are profitable investments and said the strategy of these vulture fund managers may indeed be to run the businesses into the ground.
An old story
The story of Alden Global Capital is common in today’s ever-challenged media landscape. Alden Global, which has purchased distressed newspapers across America, owns such well-known dailies as the Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post and Orange County Register.
Read the rest of this post »
Freelancer meet-up in Toronto August 3
Toronto freelancers, you’re invited to a CMG Freelance meet-up on Wednesday, August 3rd at Bar Wellington (520 Wellington St W) from 6 to 8 p.m.
CMG Freelance members and non-members are all welcome. Please join us for a free drink and some snacks, meet some colleagues and discuss all things freelance.
CMG Freelance branch president Don Genova will be there and he wants your input on what kinds of freelance professional development events you’d like to see the union offer over the coming months. It’s an opportunity to share your thoughts on the kinds of supports freelancers need.
We’ve also got some freelancer swag for member attendees: our stylish and popular “Exposure Bucks” t-shirt and a “Freelancers Toolbox” notepad.
Please RSVP at freelance@cmg.ca to let us know you’re coming. Hope to see you there!
