Students’ voices can create change in the fight for fair wages
by Priya Duguay
Toronto International Film Festival is creating quite the buzz again this year as a flurry of fans, film aficionados, and film fraternity (aka. Hollywood’s elite) arrive for the highly respected film festival. As a media student at Ryerson University’s Radio and Television Media Production Program (RTA) I’m constantly, like many of my peers, seeking employment and experience in the industry. TIFF offers a wealth of opportunities for students and aspiring newbies as it takes over downtown Toronto with screenings, meetings, deals, and parties. As the excitement and hype ignite the city many of us dream of attending TIFF as industry professionals.
So when I received an email from my program department a few weeks ago about an opportunity to work with the entertainment show etalk during TIFF, my interest was immediately piqued. As I read the email, however, I realized that this was yet another unpaid gig. The email asked for volunteers to help promote etalk’s coverage of the festival and distribute swag bags. For many students, an opportunity like this one seems glamorous and filled with exciting prospects. But the question is, why is it not a paid position?
To break it down, etalk is broadcast on CTV, which is owned and operated by Bell Media. According to their website, Bell has a multi-platform brand that includes television, online, specialty and digital media. Since Bell Media is such a major player in Canadian media, one would imagine that paying people fair wages would be common sense?
I decided to do a little investigating.
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The Born Freelancer Looks Back Over 4 Years – Part 2
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.
Having had some time off to pause and reflect, today I would like to conclude my look back on columns I have written as “The Born Freelancer”.
Here, listed in no particular order, are some additional thoughts on topics I have written about in the last four years. (Part One, which ran in July, is here).
Overcoming inertia
Nothing strikes fear in the mind of a freelancer like the possibility of confronting writer’s block. I’ve written about it here.
I’ve also written about the power of creating lists in helping freelancers organize and effectively take control of their own tendencies towards inertia.
I’ve read many interesting articles on this subject since then. All have had invaluable advice to share.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Sept 1-8
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:
- Media Fact Check: What the Press Got Wrong About Alan Kurdi, and What It Got Right [Canadaland]
- Mohamed Fahmy: Egyptian court releases ruling details against Canadian journalist [CBC]
- Expert’s forecast: Canada will have few if any print newspapers by 2025 [Poynter]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to write an “About Me” page that gets you hired [99U]
- Vice News journalists back in UK after release from Turkish prison [Guardian]
- When Freelance Writing Goes Wrong: How to Avoid a Work-From-Home Disaster [The Write Life]
- No Unions, No Problem: How Freelancers Are Finding New Ways to Fight for Their Rights [The Freelancer]
- Contributoria closes but its team still sees a future for ‘people-supported journalism’ [journalism.co.uk]
- How to manage writing-related health issues [The Write Life]
- It’s time to apply for a visiting Nieman Fellowship [Nieman Lab]
- 15 tips for handling quotes [Poynter]
- Why following-up counts [Freelancers Union]
- How to Become a Successful Writer: 5 Habits to Practice Daily [The Write Life]
Last week on Story Board:
- The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #23 — Josiah Neufeld: Josiah Neufeld is the winner of the 2014 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for social justice writing…
- New Tyee Master Class series includes CMG-sponsored courses: Vancouver publisher The Tyee has just announced their fall Master Class series and many of the eight upcoming courses will be of great interest to freelancers…
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 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #23 — Josiah Neufeld
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.
Josiah Neufeld is the winner of the 2014 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for social justice writing. The Winnipeg writer has been published in The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Utne Reader and Geez magazine. His Dave Greber award-winning story “A Quiet Slaughter” was published in Hazlitt and tells the story of Erick, a young man who escaped war and genocide in Burundi. Neufeld took the time to speak with Story Board this week about the elements of a good story, balancing work with family life, and finding inspiration in rejection.
You write about some fascinating people in your work. Many of them seem to be old friends and acquaintances. Are your story ideas always inspired by people you meet by chance, or do you sometimes seek out characters to illustrate a topic that you want to write about?
No I certainly seek out characters to illustrate a topic that I’m interested in. A piece I did last fall for a magazine called Geez, I did quite a bit of work to find the main characters of that story. It took me quite a bit of emailing contacts I know and poking around to find them.
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New Tyee Master Class series includes CMG Freelance-sponsored courses
Vancouver publisher The Tyee has just announced their fall Master Class series and many of the eight upcoming courses will be of great interest to freelancers.
CMG Freelance is sponsoring three of the courses, and is offering CMG Freelance members a $50 discount on the $200 registration fee. Non-members will have the option of signing up for a one-year CMG Freelance membership (worth $150) as part of the $200 course registration fee.
The CMG Freelance-sponsored courses are:
• Non-Fiction Writing with Maximum Impact with John Vaillant on September 26th
• Freelancer’s Survival Guide: What You Need to Know as an Independent Creative Worker with Don Genova on October 3rd
• Visual Journalism with John Lehmann on November 21st
If you are a CMG Freelance member in the Vancouver area and you are interested in taking one or more of these three courses, please email freelance@cmg.ca for a discount code before you register.
And you can check out The Tyee’s website for the full fall 2015 Master Class course list. The series starts on September 19th with a fiction writing workshop with acclaimed author Zsuzsi Gartner.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer August 25-31
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:
- Ottawa formally petitioning for Mohamed Fahmy’s release [Toronto Star]
- Egyptian court sentences Canadian journalist Fahmy to three years in prison [Globe and Mail]
- Tips for Breaking Into Travel Writing [PWAC Toronto]
- Freelancers’ Fall Checklist [Living Freelance]
- Things You Can Do To Grow Your Business When You Only Have 10 Minutes [The Freelance Hustle]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- An expert’s forecast — Canada will have few if any print newspapers by 2025 [Poynter]
- How Freelancers Are Fighting For Their Labor Rights [Fast Company]
- When journalists write for free it hurts our democracy [The Conversation]
- Writing for Corporate Blogs: How to Get Hired as a Freelancer [The Write Life]
- NO to the Huffington Post, YES to these sites that pay writers [Alyssa Royse]
- Crowdfunded journalism site Contributoria folds [Politico]
- 10 Mistakes That’ll Ruin Your Freelancing Career [The Freelancer]
- “The rapacious Ms. Huffington seems to believe that journalism skills are worth nothing.” [Romenesko]
- Why It Benefits Freelancers to Be Inflexible [The Freelancer]
- Will Unionizing Gawker And Vice Help Freelance Writers Earn A Living Wage? [Forbes]
- The 5 Commandments of Pitching for Freelance Writing Gigs [Freelance Writers Online]
- A year after James Foley: Safety advice for conflict reporters [Journalism.co.uk]
Last week on Story Board:
- The Problem of Press Trips: Freelance writers are masters of ingenuity. We have to be. Decreasing wages and increasing demands have made full-time freelance writing a losing proposition. Those of us who wish to remain in the field quickly develop strategies to make it work: We stack assignments, boost our incomes with part-time jobs, and network like crazy…
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 Problem of Press Trips
by Keph Senett
Freelance writers are masters of ingenuity. We have to be. Decreasing wages and increasing demands have made full-time freelance writing a losing proposition. Those of us who wish to remain in the field quickly develop strategies to make it work: We stack assignments, boost our incomes with part-time jobs, and network like crazy. It’s part of the job now, like photography or social media management. One tactic, though—working press trips—draws a particular brand of condemnation, and this censure may be hurting readers as much as writers.
I write for my living, but even though I have no dependents and no debt, I struggle to pay my bills. When I began as a freelance writer, my specialties were human rights and grassroots soccer—two niche topics not typically commanding robust per-words, never mind travel budgets—but by adding travel writing to my areas of expertise I was able to expand my reach. The way it works is simple. I partner with a tourism bureau or destination management organization and they fly me somewhere and show me some things. In return, I produce and place well-written travel articles in various media. And while I’m there, I extend my trip (on my own dime) to interview soccer players or activists, or attend an event or do whatever it is that I need to do to get the story I’m after. It’s a win-win—but it depends on the press trip, and the press trip is considered…vulgar.
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Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer August 18-24
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:
- Margaret Atwood column pulled, re-posted on National Post website [Globe and Mail]
- 7 ways to find your first client (or get new clients fast!) [The Freelance Hustle]
- Momentum building to unionize digital newsrooms [CMG]
- Six weeks into its micropayment strategy, The Winnipeg Free Press preps for “slow building process” [Nieman Reports]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- 4 Simple Ways Freelancers Can Conquer Cash Flow Problems [The Freelancer]
- The Creative Apocalypse That Wasn’t [New York Times]
- As BuzzFeed urges no unions, sharp rebuttal from labor leader [Poynter]
- How to keep clients happy while traveling the world [One Woman Shop]
- How to Be a Better Writer: Turn Struggle Into Success [The Write Life]
- Why Freelance Writers Need to Take Time Off (Like Regular Employees) [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- Upworthy launches freelancer program [Poynter]
- The Value of Slow Journalism in the Age of Instant Information [Nieman Reports]
- Why Every Freelancer Needs a B Team [The Freelancer]
- 3 must-break freelance habits [Freelancers Union]
- 12 basics of interviewing, listening and note-taking [Poynter]
- “Behind every tweet is a story,” and other advice for new journalism students [Nieman Lab]
- 8 essential security tips for freelancers [Freelancers Union]
Last week on Story Board:
- Digital newsrooms moving towards unionization: It’s been a big summer for unions and new media. The past few weeks have seen a string of stories about digital media workers organizing…
- Goal setting for freelancers: Whether or not you’re getting ready to go back to school this fall, there is something hardwired in us about September. It’s the season of clean notebooks and a new teacher. We get a fresh start. That may explain why September is such a hot mess of resolutions and goal setting…
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.
Digital newsrooms moving towards unionization
It’s been a big summer for unions and new media. The past few weeks have seen a string of stories about digital media workers organizing — employees at Gawker, Salon, Vice and The Guardian US have all voted to unionize since the beginning of June. This week, BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti told his employees that he doesn’t think unionizing would be good for them or the company. A sign, perhaps, that the urge to organize is still building.
The Canadian Media Guild’s Karen Wirsig wrote about the digital newsroom unionizing trend on the CMG site this week. She says that Canadian digital media workers, too, are at the mercy of the fast-changing priorities of their employers.
If you work for a digital media organization, you can read Wirsig’s post on the Canadian Media Guild’s website for more background as well as information about organizing your workplace.
And freelancers, you can read about the benefits of independent union membership on the CMG Freelance site.
Goal setting for freelancers
by Rebecca Hass
Whether or not you’re getting ready to go back to school this fall, there is something hardwired in us about September. It’s the season of clean notebooks and a new teacher. We get a fresh start. That may explain why September is such a hot mess of resolutions and goal setting. Forget New Years, the day after Labor Day holds the future you.
Now is the perfect time to create your vision for the life you want to be living. Where do you want your freelance career to take you? Living on the beach and writing travel pieces? Covering exciting stories in urban centres? What is your goal in life and work?
Be S.M.A.R.T. but with a twist
In the world of business they have goal setting down to a science. For a goal to succeed, they say you need to use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic and Time-bound.
But for freelancers (and, I’d argue, pretty much for everybody outside of the world of selling widgets) that acronym does more harm than good. I’m keeping the first three (Specific, Measurable and Accountable) but tossing the last two. Your goal needs to speak to you so that you have the fuel to chase it. Choosing a goal that is first and foremost ‘realistic’ is like letting Eeyore book your holidays: predictable and unexciting.
But don’t take my word for it, here’s Jim Carrey on being ‘realistic’:
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