Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer April 5-11
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:
- Media Union CWA Canada Condemns Herald Refugee Story [CWA Canada]
- Does serious journalism stand a chance? [J-Source]
- 2015 CAJ award finalists announced [J-Source]
- Developing from the Negative: Freelance photojournalism [Ryerson Review]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Is transparency the new objectivity in journalism? [Journalism.co.uk]
- Do we need a new kind of nonprofit structure to support news as a public good? [Nieman Reports]
- Stop asking so many questions, don’t forget the kicker and other tips from Pulitzer winners [Poynter]
- Editors Tell All: What Subject Lines Work Best? [The Freelancer]
- 3 ways to build confidence – even when you’re not feeling it [Freelancers Union]
Last week on Story Board:
- Freelance rates rising at CBC/Radio Canada: The Canadian Media Guild and CBC have agreed to an across-the-board wage increase of 1.5% for 2016-17. This increase is also applicable to all the minimum rates applicable to Freelance Contributors…
- What is your time worth?: Be on the lookout for more than one story at a time. But most importantly, figure out what your time is worth, then make it work for you…
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 Rates Rising at CBC/Radio-Canada
The Canadian Media Guild and CBC have agreed to an across-the-board wage increase of 1.5% for 2016-17. This increase is also applicable to all the minimum rates applicable to Freelance Contributors. The increase is effective April 1st and the new rates should be posted at cmg.ca and cmgfreelance.ca within the next couple of days.
The one exception is the rate for Text Contributions. The new minimum jumps to 55 cents a word from 50 cents a word based on a previous negotiation.
The increase comes as a result of the 2013 contract settlement which doesn’t expire until 2019, but the two sides agreed to a ‘wage re-opener’ for 2017.
“All freelancers should examine their newest contracts (April 1st or later) to make sure that the increase has been applied,” says Don Genova, CMG Freelance President. “Also, if you’re a regular contributor being paid over-scale, your base rate should go up 1.5% and your over-scale amount should remain the same, it shouldn’t be reduced as a result of the base improvement.”
If you have any questions about the increase and how it should be applied, contact Don at freelance@cmg.ca.
What is your time worth?
By Sandra Phinney
It’s a curious human trait how we tend to put certain people and professions on a pedestal, while we look down on others. I was acutely aware of this when I farmed. When I taught university courses and wore a professor’s hat, I had tons of respect. Wearing my farmer’s hat … not so much.
Even within the same profession, we set up arbitrary tiers of importance. For example, high school teachers tend to be held in higher regard than elementary teachers. Degrees from big-name institutions are sexier than degrees from smaller institutions.
The same happens in the writing world. There’s a lot of prestige associated with writing for national magazines that pay $1 to $3 dollars-a-word. People are impressed. Mention a little-known regional publication (worse yet, a local magazine) and some people’s eyes glaze over. For many, low word-rates imply lesser quality magazines or insignificant productions.
I’ve discovered that for the most part, this is not true; I now think twice before I assume a snobbish stance.
But the main reason I’ve made a mental shift (crass as it may sound) is because I can often make as much money writing for a publication that pays .20 cents a word as I can for publications that pay $1 + a word.
“How so” you ask? It all has to do with how long it takes to produce an article (or complete a contract), and knowing what your time is worth.
Track your time
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 30-April 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:
- Coalition condemns court ruling threatening press freedoms [J-Source]
- Superior Court judge upholds RCMP production order for Vice reporter’s notes [J-Source]
- Canadian Judge Orders VICE News Journalist to Hand Over Digital Messages [Vice]
- Finalists named for Atlantic Journalism Awards [Canadian Magazines]
- Offbeat: To cover holes left by cuts, young journalists must define their own roles in the newsroom [Ryerson Review]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to Declutter Your Writing Ideas and Finish More Projects [The Write Life]
- 7 reasons why you should break into brand journalism [Mediabistro]
- Why You Should Add ‘Fixer’ to Your Résumé [The Freelancer]
- Even busy freelancers can’t afford to skimp on these 4 things [Freelancers Union]
- 5 Freelancers Share Their Worst Client Horror Stories [The Freelancer]
- 9 Places to Find an Expert Source for Your Next Article [The Write Life]
- The Freelancer’s Guide To Avoiding Nightmare Clients [Fast Company]
- Why Every Freelance Writer Needs an Accountant on Their Side [The Write Life]
Last week on Story Board:
- Sunny Widerman’s tax tips for creatives: It’s nearly April, freelancers. Which means it’s time to start thinking about preparing your tax return…
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.
Sunny Widerman’s tax tips for creatives
It’s nearly April, freelancers. Which means it’s time to start thinking about preparing your tax return.
A few weeks ago, CMG Freelance ran a tax tips webinar for our members with Toronto tax specialist Sunny Widerman. To help get you into the tax filing mindset, here are a few of Widerman’s top tips from that webinar.
First of all, Widerman recommends you avoid the trap of thinking that doing your taxes is an annoyance that’s taking you away from your work: she says that spending time organizing and understanding your finances will help you run your business better.
Claiming expenses
When it comes to your tax return, self-employed people who work from home can claim a portion of certain living expenses. For renters, that will be a percentage of your utilities and rent. For owners, it’s a percentage of your utilities, property taxes, and the interest on your mortgage (but not the mortgage itself). You can also claim all or part of your internet connection and phone line — although Widerman says it’s best not to write off all of your telephone costs. Your research expenses might include cable bills if you work in television, and, for writers, any magazines and newspapers that you buy.
Filing tax returns
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 22-29
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:
- First winner of the Ali Mustafa Memorial Award named [J-Source]
- Publishing and ‘unpublishing’ in the digital age [J-Source]
- Toronto Star delivering the newspaper on tablet, but its audience may be on a different screen [Ryerson Review]
- Five things Canadian freelancers need to know about filing their taxes [Canadian Business]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Unhappy freelancers invited to submit ‘World’s Longest Invoice’ [New York Daily News]
- Even busy freelancers can’t afford to skimp on these 4 things [Freelancers Union]
- Meet the woman drowning out the trolls that harass female journalists [Poynter]
- For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way [The Guardian]
- Testing its pay-per-article model in English, Blendle launches in U.S. with 20 publishers [Nieman Lab]
- 6 Actionable Steps to Attracting Higher Paying Freelance Clients [Creative Live]
- Why Isn’t Your Editor Answering Your Pitch? It’s Complicated [The Freelancer]
- Why Your Personal Essay Pitch Needs Both Substance and Style [The Write Life]
- How to make thousands in new income with just a few words [Freelancers Union]
- 3 Ways to Turn Freelance Writing Jobs into Stable, Recurring Work [The Write Life]
Last week on Story Board:
- Freelancers in conflict zones still waiting for fair treatment from the industry: The world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place for journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 622 journalists have been killed as a result of their jobs over the past ten years…
- Digital media workers are unionizing like it’s 1999:Gawker Media’s editorial staff ratified their first union contract on March 1 with their collective bargaining representatives at the Writers Guild of America…
- Unpaid Internships, A People’s History: Today, Ontarians—especially those in female-dominated fields like nursing and education—complete 100,000 illegal unpaid internships each year…
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 in conflict zones still waiting for fair treatment from the industry
by Rachel Sanders
The world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place for journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 622 journalists have been killed as a result of their jobs over the past ten years — nearly twice as many as the previous decade. What’s more, nearly 200 journalists are currently in prison worldwide.
And conflict zone journalists have harrowing stories to back up the numbers. Mohamed Fahmy, the Canadian journalist who spent nearly two years in prison in Egypt after being arrested in 2013, says working conditions for journalists in conflict zones are worse than he’s ever seen them.
“Hotspot areas have never been this dangerous,” Fahmy told Story Board via Skype last week.
“In the past it used to make a difference when you wore the flak jacket — a signature that said we were press — to protect ourselves. But now it actually makes you a target.”
He said things have changed for journalists since the Arab Spring began in 2010.
“More journalists are being targeted by groups and governments because they’ve realized how journalism can actually topple regimes,” he said.
Fahmy was released from prison in September 2015. He hasn’t yet started working as a journalist again. He’s focusing his energy currently on the Fahmy Foundation, the organization he founded to provide financial assistance to unjustly imprisoned journalists.
“When you’re in prison, whether you’re a freelancer, whether you’re staff, if you are a prisoner of conscience and you’re in that cell you need all the support you can get,” he said.
Read the rest of this post »
Digital Media Workers Are Unionizing Like It’s 1999
This post is the third 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
Gawker Media’s editorial staff ratified their first union contract on March 1 with their collective bargaining representatives at the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). In addition to including important economic gains, the contract features innovations for workers at media startups that could set sector-wide standards. But digital media workers in the United States have a longer history of union activity in The News Guild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA) from which organizers could also learn.
The Gawker contract includes at least four major innovations, reflecting the realities of the digital workplace:
- Editorial independence: decisions about posting editorial content online—such as a story or part thereof, or a headline—can be made only by editorial employees, and content can be removed only by a majority vote of the Executive Editor, the CEO, and the General Counsel;
- Republishing: employees have the right to publish books based on the material that they create for the company and collect 100 percent of the royalties;
- Contract employees (“permalancers”): night and weekend contractors must be paid the same rate as non-contract employees after working at Gawker for one year, after which they must be offered full-time positions or be terminated; and
- Diversity: the company must meet regularly with the union’s “editorial diversity committee” to discuss diversity in hiring and other ongoing issues.
Gawker may have set off a wave of unionization at online news companies in 2015, but digital media workers have been organizing since 1995. Here’s a brief history of efforts to unionize digital newsrooms over the past 20 years.
Read the rest of this post »
Unpaid Internships: A People’s History
by Sara Tatelman
Photo by Cynthia Pandev from the film Pay Your Interns!
When Ross Perlin told his grandparents about his first internship, they thought he was becoming a doctor. And fair enough—until the 1970s, the word “intern” primarily referred to freshly minted MDs practicing under supervision. And they were always paid.
Perlin, author of Intern Nation: How To Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, was speaking at the Pay Your Interns Summit in Toronto on March 12. The event was organized by filmmaker Cynthia Pandev and included a screening of her film Pay Your Interns!
Today, Ontarians—especially those in female-dominated fields like nursing and education—complete 100,000 illegal unpaid internships each year, said Schenella Pinto, director of research and labour policy at the Canadian Intern Association, in the panel discussion following Perlin’s lecture. Under provincial law, unpaid internships not part of an academic program are prohibited unless they meet six strict criteria, including not benefitting the employer in any major way.
But unpaid internships are “saving companies in the U.S. something like $2 billion a year in wages,” Perlin said. “As internships have gotten global and are now in every country you might think of, that’s billions and billions that are being saved in labour costs.”
That ties into employers’ changing attitudes, he added. Internships spread into corporate America in the 1940s, but they were paid transitional periods between education and work, and employers focused on recruitment. But today, such precarious work is normalized.
Read the rest of this post »
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 15-21
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:
- Aspiring Toronto Star interns no longer have to provide a photo of themselves with their application [J-Source]
- CBC to require online commenters to use real names [CBC]
- John Cruickshank stepping down as Toronto Star publisher [Globe and Mail]
- Navigating the freelance jungle [J-Source]
- Why podcasts are a part of CBC’s digital future [J-Source]
- U.S. fund manager GoldenTree seeks buyer for stake in Postmedia [Globe and Mail]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- What an upcoming U.S. government survey will mean for freelancers [Fast Company]
- 6 Ways to Never Miss a Deadline Again [Mediabistro]
- 8 Reasons Your Pitch Got Rejected and How to Fix It, According to Top Editors [The Freelancer]
- How to Be a Freelance Writer: Skip These 10 Embarrassing Mistakes [The Write Life]
- 7 Tips for Conducting Efficient Interviews — and Impressing Your Sources [The Write Life]
Last week on Story Board:
- SABEW Canada’s second annual Best in Business awards night April 20th: The Canadian chapter of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) is holding its second annual Best in Business writing awards night on Wednesday, April 20th…
- The Born Freelancer on Using an Alias: If you work simultaneously in a number of different genres and need to separate and differentiate career strands or if you simply want to help build a more focused, memorable brand you may want to consider using an alias…
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.
