Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 21-28
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:
- CBC fires Jian Ghomeshi over sex allegations [Toronto Star]
- Postmedia losses deepen as print, digital ad sales drop [Globe and Mail] (via @jembradshaw)
- Postmedia/Sun sale would pose direct threat to press freedom [CAJ] (via @jsource)
- Yet more cuts at CBC/Radio-Canada as details filter out [CMG]
- How to be a successful freelance writer: Part One [Anne Mullens]
- How to be a successful freelance writer: Part Two [Anne Mullens]
From the U.S. and beyond:
- 5 stages of unresponsive clients [Freelancers Union]
- 6 Important Mental Health Tips That Will Help Freelancers Stay Sharp [The Freelancer]
- 5 journalism tips from Mark Leibovich [Poynter]
- Why being weird gets me more clients [Freelancers Union]
- How Do You Balance Writing With Running a Business? [The Freelancer]
- These Charts Show Just How Far The Newspaper Industry Has Fallen In 10 Years [Business Insider]
- New Survey Suggests Finding Work as a Freelancer Is All About Word of Mouth [The Freelancer]
- Jill Abramson’s Post-NYT Plans? A Startup, of Course [Mashable]
- The Ultimate Guide to Dealing With Unresponsive Editors [The Freelancer]
Last week on Story Board:
- The Born Freelancer on Achieving “Ah Ha!” Solutions”: It sits there like a landslide, blocking your creative journey and costing you time, energy and temporary sanity. I’m talking about a creative impasse…
- Southern Ontario freelancers wanted for research study on precarious work: A group of researchers is seeking freelancers in Southern Ontario to participate in a study on insecure employment…
- Friends and colleagues mourn freelance writer and instructor Mark Anderson: News of the death of Ottawa freelance writer and journalism professor Mark Anderson was greeted with an outpouring of sadness and dismay late last week…
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 Born Freelancer on Achieving “Ah Ha!” Solutions
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.
It sits there like a landslide, blocking your creative journey and costing you time, energy and temporary sanity.
I’m talking about a creative impasse.
It could be how to proceed from one scene to another in an episodic script. Or how to clarify an obscure plot point in a novel. Or how to edit an interview to highlight a subject’s point of view.
In all cases, there is a particular creative problem to overcome. And as a freelancer there is usually only you to solve it.
Previously I’ve written about “Writer’s Block” which is a more general grinding to a halt of the creative process as a result of inspirational juices drying up. What I’m discussing today is an extension of that conversation but with a tighter focus on specific problem solving.
It’s what I call achieving “Ah Ha!” solutions. If you’ve ever found one you know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t yet I hope you will one day soon with the suggestions I am about to offer.
I. Brute force: driving through an impasse
Southern Ontario freelancers wanted for research study on precarious work
A group of researchers is seeking freelancers in Southern Ontario to participate in a study on insecure employment.
The study is part of a multi-year project exploring poverty and precarious employment in the area (PEPSO). The organizations leading the project include the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton and the United Way of Greater Toronto.
Freelancers will be asked to complete a short survey and a 60 to 90 minute interview about their working conditions. Those who are selected for the study will receive a $40 honorarium for their participation.
Participants must be between 25 and 55 years old and work at least 8 hours a week for pay. Full time students are not eligible to participate.
For more information, you can contact Anthony Tambureno at tambur@univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca. To apply, go to this Surveymonkey page.
Friends and colleagues mourn freelance writer and instructor Mark Anderson
News of the death of Ottawa freelance writer and journalism professor Mark Anderson was greeted with an outpouring of sadness and dismay late last week. J-Source reported yesterday that Anderson died of complications related to throat cancer on October 16th at the age of 51.
Response on social media came, in large part, from Anderson’s former and current students at Ottawa’s Algonquin College. The Edmonton Journal’s Stuart Thomson wrote this poignant piece in remembrance of his former teacher on Medium on Friday.
In addition to being a valued teacher and mentor to many, Anderson was also a talented freelance writer specializing in outdoors and business writing. He was nominated for numerous National Magazine Awards during his more than 25 years in journalism.
Patrick Walsh, Editor-in-Chief of Outdoor Canada, tweeted a farewell to Anderson, his “friend, colleague and star writer.”
“Mark was one of those writers who editors love,” Walsh told Story Board via email yesterday.
“Not only did he come up with great story pitches and win the occasional award for the magazine, he was also a pleasure to edit. Actually, ‘edit’ is too strong of a word. A ‘light dusting’ was all Mark’s work ever needed. And as a bonus, he was an avid angler, and an excellent one at that—he was named several times to represent Canada at international fly-fishing tournaments.”
Above all, said Walsh, Anderson was “simply an all-round nice guy, and a pleasure to work with.”
“He brought so much to our magazine. He will be sorely missed.”
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 15-20
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:
- When Iggy Pop can’t live off his art, what chance do the rest have? [Globe and Mail]
- How media unions are making strides to improve working conditions [J-Source]
- Ivor Tossell on journalism and personal branding [J-Source]
- How to make your journalism portfolio stand out [J-Source]
- 5 ways to have your most productive fall ever [PWAC Toronto]
- J-Source launches International Reporting Bureau [J-Source]
From the U.S. and beyond:
- How to overcome the fear of sharing your writing in public [Lifehacker]
- The Art of Street Reporting, Part I: Talking to Sources [The Freelancer]
- Use the 45/15 rule for productive procrastination [Freelancers Union]
- 5 ways journalists can find stories on LinkedIn [Journalism.co.uk]
- How This Young College Graduate Went From Unemployed to Podcast Wunderkind [Contently]
- Break Through a Productivity Wall by Cleaning Your Workspace [Lifehacker] (via @freelancersu)
- Freelancing is a Real Job: Tips for Responding to Critics and Skeptics [The Write Life]
Last week on Story Board:
- NewZulu Canada fills a need with its photography crowdsourcing platform: Legal cases that have arisen over improper use of photos sourced from social media over the past few years have demonstrated a growing need for a better system for crowdsourcing citizen journalism. Enter platforms like NewZulu — a crowdsourcing platform that recruits users to upload their photos of news events for potential sale to news outlets…
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.
NewZulu Canada fills a need with its photography crowdsourcing platform
Legal cases that have arisen over improper use of photos sourced from social media over the past few years have demonstrated a growing need for a better system for crowdsourcing citizen journalism.
Enter platforms like NewZulu — a crowdsourcing platform that recruits users to upload their photos of news events for potential sale to news outlets. NewZulu recently opened a Canadian office and established a partnership with the Canadian Press, an arrangement that both parties say paves the way for a better approach to crowdsourcing – one that will see citizen journalists paid and properly credited for their work.
Allendria Brunjes, senior editor with NewZulu Canada says that she and other Canadian staff have been building up the community of users since early August.
“The idea is that really we’re just helping news organizations with their content. We’re a crowdsourced news platform and we validate the content, make sure it’s authentic, that it actually happened and that the person who said that they took the photo actually did take that picture,” Brunjes told Story Board in a phone interview earlier this week.
Photographs are vetted for authenticity by staff journalists as well as through direct contact with contributing photographers on the scene at breaking news events.
Read the rest of this post »
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 7-14
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:
- Jesse Brown dishes on Canadaland and why we need more media criticism [J-Source]
- What the Postmedia-Sun deal will mean for the future of Canadian journalism [Globe and Mail]
- Newspaper ownership concentration in Canada [J-Source]
- Postmedia strikes $316-million deal to buy Quebecor’s English papers [Globe and Mail]
- Postmedia strikes $316M deal to buy Sun Media English papers [J-Source]
- Postmedia buys Sun Media’s English-language newspapers [Poynter]
From the U.S. and beyond:
- Journalism’s biggest competitors are things that don’t even look like journalism [GigaOM]
- How Stephen King teaches writing [The Atlantic] (via @LuigiBenetton)
- 19 Websites and Magazines That Want to Publish Your Personal Essays [The Write Life]
- Longreads: Now Publishing Original Storytelling [Fast Company]
- What to say when you need a deadline extension [Freelancers Union]
- Ask A Freelancer: Can I Freelance and Still Keep a Job? [Contently]
- 5 Questions for Jill Abramson [Nieman Reports]
- Ask a Freelancer: How Do I Compete With Young Writers? [Contently]
- What to do when you’re completely overwhelmed [Freelancers Union]
Last week on Story Board:
- Jesse Brown launches Patreon campaign to fund his independent podcast, Canadaland: Jesse Brown saw an empty space on the Canadian media landscape. So he filled that niche with Canadaland, a weekly media criticism podcast that started a year ago this week…
- Applications for the Canadian Nieman Fellowship now open: The Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship is currently accepting requests for applications for the 2015-16 academic 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.
Jesse Brown launches Patreon campaign to fund his independent podcast, Canadaland
by Rachel Sanders
Jesse Brown saw an empty space on the Canadian media landscape. So he filled that niche with Canadaland, a weekly media criticism podcast that started a year ago this week.
Over the past year, Canadaland has built up an audience of over 10,000 listeners. That’s a number that has been steadily climbing. But a year in, Brown has found that sponsorship is not enough to support his work.
So this week he launched a crowdfunding campaign. Unlike many of the journalism crowdfunding projects we’ve seen over the past few months, Brown is running his campaign through Patreon. The crowdfunding platform, which was founded in May 2013, allows fans to support creators with monthly donations.
Within an hour and a half of its launch on Monday, Canadaland’s Patreon campaign had surpassed its first milestone — $1000 a month to cover costs and keep the show going. At the time of this posting, the campaign is creeping towards its second milestone — $4000 a month to improve the show and increase its frequency to twice a week. Brown says that if he reaches $10,000 a week he intends to hire other freelance journalists and create a podcast network.
Brown spent a few minutes on the phone with Story Board earlier this week to talk about crowdfunding, niche journalism and following your obsession.
Q: What inspired you to start Canadaland?
A: The lack of any media criticism in Canada – ranging from serious approaches like On The Media to satirical approaches like the Daily Show or gossipy stuff like Gawker. I like that stuff and I find it interesting and informative and funny and there was nothing like that here.
And then as somebody who’s been working in the media for the past fifteen years, I was aware that that was what everybody always talked about, were those subjects. Privately. And then there was a sense that you weren’t allowed to talk about it publicly. And I thought that was ridiculous. So I pitched it around in various formats, as a newspaper column, as a CBC show, on television, as a radio show, as a podcast for Macleans, and I got a variety of excuses or rejections with different reasoning. Very commonly I was told that nobody wanted to hear that kind of stuff if it was about Canadian media. So I decided to do it on my own.
Applications for the Canadian Nieman Fellowship now open
The Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship is currently accepting requests for applications for the 2015-16 academic year.
The fellowship offers a Canadian journalist the opportunity to take a mid-career sabbatical to study at Harvard University. Freelancers are welcome to apply.
Applications are open to print journalists, photojournalists, editorial cartoonists, columnists and broadcast journalists who have been in the media industry for between 5 and 10 years. Applicants must be Canadian citizens.
The deadline for applications is February 3, 2015.
You can read more about the Canadian Nieman Fellowship here or email canadiannieman@gmail.com for an application form.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Sept 30-Oct 6
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:
- Financial Housekeeping 101: How will a financial planner help? [PWAC Toronto] (via @LuigiBenetton)
- Factual TV workers still feeling the squeeze [CMG] (via @karenatcmg)
- Live blog: state of business journalism [J-Source]
- Calgary Herald, Maclean’s win Online Journalism Awards [J-Source]
- PWAC dating game puts writers together with people needing them [Canadian Magazines]
- How to start a food blog [PWAC]
- Sun Media apologizes to Trudeau for Ezra Levant’s ‘slut’ comments [Globe & Mail] (via @jembradshaw)
- 2014 Western Magazine Award Winners [Magazines Canada] (via @Canadianmags)
From the U.S. and beyond:
- 3 reasons why every freelance writer should learn web design [Freelancers Union]
- Three things traditional media could learn from a crowdfunded Dutch news site [GigaOM] (via @journochat)
- 7 Affordable Resources for Self-Employed Workers [Mashable] (via @freelancersu)
- Freelance journalist arrested in Ferguson [Poynter]
- NBC News Freelancer in Liberia Diagnosed with Ebola [NBC]
- When Should You Start Worrying About Getting Paid? [Work Made For Hire] (via @freelancersu)
- Ask A Freelancer: Is It Okay to Reuse Interviews and Insights? [Contently]
- How to Stay Sane While Building Your Writing Career Part Time [The Write Life]
- Do You Want Fries with That? 5 Ways Freelancing Is Just Like Your First Job [Contently]
- New York Times Plans Cutbacks in Newsroom Staff [New York Times]
- Financial tips for freelancers who don’t like dealing with finance [Freelancers Union]
- 76 Ways for Publishers and Creatives to Earn More Money in Media [Contently]
- Brace yourself for the corporate journalism wave [Quartz] (via @journochat)
- The Big Conundrum: Should Journalists Learn Code? [AJR] (via @journochat)
Last week on Story Board:
- The Born Freelancer on the Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation, Part 3: Recently The Born Freelancer sat down with CBMF Executive Director and lifelong freelancer Kealy Wilkinson to discuss a number of important issues relevant to freelancers in Canada today as seen in the context of our broadcasting heritage…
- Humber College Print Humour Workshop coming up in New York: Got jokes? Dream of publishing your humour writing? Humber College is gearing up for a two-day humour writing workshop in New York City later this month…
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.
