Roberta Staley on crowdfunding, connection and independent journalism
Roberta Staley is a Vancouver-based magazine writer and documentary filmmaker. Her current film project, Mightier Than The Sword, is about about female journalists and filmmakers in Afghanistan. She is also the editor of Canadian Chemical News and the winner of the 2015 Amnesty International Canada Media Award. She took the time to speak with Story Board recently about […]
CMG Freelance to sponsor Tyee MasterClass on The Art of Crowdfunding
CMG Freelance is teaming up with The Tyee to sponsor a MasterClass on crowdfunding that’s scheduled for Saturday, May 30th. in Vancouver. The workshop, called The Art of Crowdfunding, will be taught by filmmaker and media activist Ian MacKenzie (Occupy Love, Sacred Economics). It promises to “demystify the world of crowdfunding” and offer specific strategies for a […]
Writer Scott Carney launches WordRates & PitchLab Kickstarter
by Rachel Sanders Scott Carney figures he’s beaten the odds and come out the other side: he’s become a successful freelance writer. What was his first clue? Everyone kept asking for his advice. “I get emails and phone calls and letters from writers around the country all the time asking for advice on how to negotiate contracts or how […]
Peter Smoczynski on independent filmmaking, risk, and the value of a freelancers’ union
by Rachel Sanders Peter Smoczynski says that joining the Canadian Media Guild’s freelance branch was a turning point in the production of his latest film. “I didn’t feel I was alone anymore,” he says. Although the Ottawa-based filmmaker has spent the majority of his 40-year career working independently, it was a relief to have […]
Desmond Cole on crowdfunding to get to Ferguson
by Rachel Sanders Desmond Cole is a Toronto freelancer and political commentator who writes about policing, race and social justice for a variety of media outlets. When the grand jury decision came down in Ferguson, Missouri last Monday, he felt compelled to go there in search of the stories that weren’t being told. As a freelancer, however, his precarious financial […]
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 […]
Alternative Funding Models for Independent Media
by Christian Deo Canadian independent media organizations face a critical question in light of the economic difficulties currently confronting all forms of media: ‘is independent media financially viable and sustainable?’ This was the focus of a panel discussion called Financial Models of Independent Media that was hosted by CWA – Canada at the Peoples’ Social Forum in Ottawa during […]
Freelancer Stephen Leahy on crowdfunding his environmental journalism
by Rachel Sanders Stephen Leahy was at a conservation conference in Mexico five years ago when the dire state of freelance journalism became clear to him. After the event, he spoke with several other freelancers, all of whom had received travel awards to attend the event. Most of them had not been able to sell a single story […]
Ricochet is crowdfunding to pay the writers
by Rachel Sanders Paying writers is a key focus of Ricochet’s new model for journalism. The Montreal-based media project has been raising money with an Indiegogo campaign this month, most of which will go towards paying journalists for their work. With 7 days to go, the campaign has raised nearly three quarters of its $75,000 goal. Ethan Cox, one of the […]
Freelancers and crowdfunding
We all know how tough a career in journalism has become over the past few years. Newspapers are in poor shape, many magazines are struggling, and CBC has been hit with budget cut after budget cut. This week, J-Source took a close look at how all of this affects freelancers, with a post on the challenges […]
