Canada’s meeting place for freelance writers and creators

Established 2010

[caption id="attachment_1570" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Chart created by David Cohn/Digidave."][/caption]

Do journalists working in various media really perceive each other like the above image suggests? Of course, David Cohn, who made the chart, is having a bit of fun with the stereotypes about people who work in print versus broadcast versus online versus data journalism. But, joking aside, it seems worthwhile to ask how deeply are these comedic interpretations based in reality, and how do they affect how journalists do their jobs and get along with each other.

Maybe you disagree with some or all of the stereotypes the chart presents, but the fact that they exist to some degree is hard to ignore. Freelancers who work in more than one medium will encounter these perceptions and feel their effects more often than journalists with full-time gigs. If your portfolio is full of online work, will print publications be less likely to give your pitches serious consideration? How often do you hear the term "blogger" used pejoratively? Do online journalists harbour a bit of envy towards those who work in broadcast for their "lighter" work loads (as the above chart suggests)?

In a rapidly changing industry like ours, these walls between journalists working in different media are certainly not as tall and strong as they once were. Chances are, if you work in print or broadcast, your work also appears online, and you're even creating stories specifically to appear online as "add-ons." Reporters are shooting videos to go along with their written work, and TV reporters are blogging to engage with their audiences. Still, building your skill set, especially when good jobs are scarce, can't be all bad, right? Maybe the above chart has an expiry date that's not far off, and maybe we should look forward to that day.

An email reminder from copyright licensing agency Access has reminded us to remind you about the second Robertson Settlement—because sometimes, in late summer, these kinds of things slip our minds, don't they?As a result of the decision that was approved on May 2, 2011  (a separate settlement with CanWest was approved on June 16), writers can…
If you've ever had trouble collecting payment from a client, this video is for you. Mike Monteiro, co-founder of Mule Design Studio gives his provocative (and sometimes profane) tips for protecting yourself as an independent contractor. His audience is a group of web designers at a San Francisco design conference, but freelancers of all stripes…
A fellow freelancer forwarded me a Craigslist ad the other day. I thought it might be for a pair of skis or that used barbeque I've been meaning to get. But it wasn't. It was a publisher on the hunt for a freelance editor. Compensation to be decided based on the submitted quote, it said. I quickly deleted it, but then I got to wondering: Is this…
This series of posts by The Born Freelancer will share personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments.I discovered a new 21st century word this year. FOMO. Go look it up. It means the Fear of Missing Out. What freelancer doesn't occasionally…
Well, okay, Tim Knight wasn't on The National. At least not lately.But Knight—who wrote, reported for, and produced the show in the '70s—has a lot to say about its current state, and he wrote about it for J-Source. In summary, he thinks it stinks.Knight zeroes in on July 7 of this year, the day that Canada pulled its troops out of Afghanistan.…
The New York Times' paywall, which requires readers to subscribe to the site if they read more than 20 stories per month, is exceeding expectations and bringing in significant revenue for the company, writes Felix Salmon for Reuters. Salmon, who made a public bet that the paywall would disappear before its second birthday, is still not a fan of how…
This series of posts by the Born Freelancer will share personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments.In this fast moving-social media age of Twitterers and tweets, Facebook and friending, often overlooked or dismissed as old school is, IMHO, one…
One hundred years ago today, Herbert Marshall McLuhan was born in Edmonton. By the time he passed in 1980, his profound impact on media and communications theory made him a scholarly figure known worldwide and affectionately idolized in Canada. No one finishes j-school in this country without reading his work (and sweating out an essay or two about…
Well, this is something. In a post on HuffPo Canada, freelance writer Bob Beaty discusses the value of freelance content sites and asks writers to weigh in on them too. The conclusion of the article, in brief, is that while writers are severely underpaid by these sites and are dissuaded from putting any personality into their work to keep it…

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