‘Journalism’
Steve Buttry to newsroom curmudgeons: Cut it out
Do you find yourself cursing the sad state of journalism today, wondering why people waste time with Twitter, or proclaiming End Times when journalism schools cut courses on spelling and grammar? Probably not, if you’re reading posts here (at least not the social media part). But if you haven’t seen it yet — and whether [...]
Got a story about editorial independence (or lack thereof)?
We’re glad to share this call for stories about advertisers’ influence in newsrooms at magazines and newspapers. It comes from journalist Micah Luxen, who last year quit her job at the Kelowna Daily Courier, where, she says, advertisers had too much sway over editorial content. She’s collecting stories to share during a panel discussion at [...]
Survey on freelance business journalism raises more questions than it answers
Are journalists who write about money making more of it than they used to? According to a recent survey, the answer is: maybe? The Society of American Business Writers and Editors has conducted its second annual survey of freelance business journalists in the U.S., and the results tell us….well, not much. The online survey asked [...]
Blogger must pay $2.5 million after judge decides she’s not a journalist
Freelancers, here’s something to consider. If you’re not affiliated with a particular publication, are you still a journalist? If you self-publish investigative pieces, or really anything that could be deemed defamatory, are you protected by the law? Crystal Cox, a Portland-based writer, is the target of a lawsuit from Obsidian Finance Group, reports a Seattle [...]
A “brave” experiment: Brunswick News puts faith in pay wall
Brunswick News, owner of nearly all of New Brunswick’s print newspapers, is going to start charging readers to access its content online. The Chronicle Herald‘s Brett Bundale reported on Friday that the company would activate a “hard” pay wall on its online newspaper editions today. Brunswick News owns 10 French-language weeklies, six English-language weeklies, and [...]
Why I wrote for the Huffington Post (and why I stopped)
By Emma Woolley The Huffington Post is evil, right? It makes a lot of money from content it doesn’t pay for. It exploits writers and undermines their right to earn livings. It contributes to the overall devaluation of writing and especially web writing. I knew all of this and I still wrote for the Huffington [...]
How to handle “idea theft”
This week on the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers email list, a member asked the group for advice on a tricky situation. It’s a familiar one to most freelance writers and many editors who work with both freelance and staff writers. This writer had pitched a profile of a young entrepreneur to a weekly community [...]
Demand Media cuts demand for freelance writers
A week ago, Demand Media emailed its so-called “army of freelancers” to let them know why it was offering fewer writing assignments for its sites, including eHow.com. In the email, which is posted in full here on Business Insider, Demand says now that there’s a huge backlog of stories on eHow, it is shifting its [...]
Magazines get in the digital long-form game
In a story for the New York Observer, Emily Witt shares journalist David Dobbs’ digital long-form success story. Working with The Atavist, his long-form piece about his mother’s affair with a flight surgeon during the Second World War sold a “healthy five-figure” number of copies through Kindle Singles. As Dobbs received a dollar for every [...]
