‘News’
Better now than it used to be: freelancing in Canada
by Tannara Yelland Freelancing full-time is a kind of uncertain work advisable for only serious risk-takers. Your pay is never assured. You’re at the mercy of editors who may have more pressing concerns than responding to pitches. Once you have something accepted and printed, pay can take weeks or months to get to you. [...]
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer April 15-22
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: Union says 55 jobs lost at Global News [J-Source] Toronto Star to pay new digital journalists less than print writers [Tyee] Mediatech Commons launching CMG [...]
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer April 8-14
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: What does the future hold for the CBC? [Globe and Mail] New Torstar code of businesses raises conundrums for journalists [J-Source] 5 fundamentals journalists [...]
Podcasting patent threatens independent media
by J.P. Davidson Like blogging and web video, podcasting has matured in recent years – from nerdy niche to viable independent media platform. Marc Maron is one success story: the interviews he conducts from his garage in LA go out to a massive online following. The show revived Maron’s career and even landed him a [...]
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer April 1-7
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: Reform spirit drove writer Heather Robertson [Globe and Mail] (via @LuigiBenetton) Clustering or brainstorming your way to writing success [Six Figure Freelancer] (via @LuigiBenetton) Unpaid interns [...]
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 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: Unpaid internships are unethical and uneconomical. Time to ban them [Canadian Business] Unpaid interns are this generation’s slaves: Mallick [Toronto Star] Live blog: Becoming a [...]
Crackdown on unpaid internships a positive step, but the collective struggle must continue
This week, the Ontario Ministry of Labour told The Walrus and Toronto Life to bring their internship programs into compliance with the Employment Standards Act (ESA). Both publications had a long history of offering full time, months-long, unpaid internships for contributing to the main work of the publication. Instead of apologizing and figuring out [...]
Pay Me Please helps freelancers get what they’re owed
There’s nothing quite as frustrating to a freelancer as having to chase a publisher down for unpaid invoices. Story Board has reported on late-paying Canadian publishers a couple of times over the past few months. In both cases, freelancers were angry enough to go public with their complaints. Last fall, a similarly frustrated freelance journalist started [...]
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 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: TWUC co-founder Heather Robertson dies at 72 [Quill & Quire] (via @twuc) David Frum becomes senior editor of The Atlantic [Canadian Magazines] Writer Heather Robertson, who [...]
Champion of freelancers, Heather Robertson, dies at age 72
Canadian journalist Heather Robertson passed away this week at the age of 72. Robertson co-founded both the Writers’ Union of Canada and the Professional Writers Association of Canada. She was a best-selling and award-winning author who championed the rights of freelancers in the digital age. Robertson’s 1995 class-action lawsuit against the Globe and Mail claimed [...]
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