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:

• Globe and Mail Editor-in-Chief: “Sloppy standards” is where they found issues with Wente [J-Source]
• Why Definitely Not the Opera is signing off CBC Radio after 22 years [J-Source]
• I work at VICE Canada and I need a union [CMG]
• VICE Canada to unionize [Masthead]
• National Magazine Awards finalists announced [J-Source]
• 6 reasons you still haven't done your taxes... and how to get over them [Rags To Reasonable]
• 2016 Emerge Media Award winners announced [J-Source]

From The U.S. and beyond:

• The Powerful Case for Developing Your Fiction Writing Platform [The Write Life]
• How to make sure you don't end up with a client from hell [Freelancers Union]
• How to (finally) tackle that pet project [Freelancers Union]
• Stop working for free: “Why would any self-respecting writer put up with that?” [Salon]
• The news industry can’t cut its way to quality [Poynter]

Last week on Story Board:

• CMG submits application for Vice Canada union: The Vice Canada union campaign reached an important milestone last week — the Canadian Media Guild filed for certification with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board...
• Query Smarts -- How to increase your batting average: I’ve heard editors say that upwards of 80 percent of the queries they receive are deleted without reading further than the end of the first paragraph. Why? It all comes down to three things...

 

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.