Freelancers represent at the 2016 CMG convention
Your 2016 CMG Freelance delegates. Left to right: Elle Andra-Warner, JP Davidson, Rachel Sanders, Paolo Pietropaolo, Don Genova (CMG freelance branch president) and George Butters. Photo by Andrew Meade.
Last weekend media workers from across Canada came together in Toronto to discuss working conditions and the future of our industry.
The biennial Canadian Media Guild convention took place on June 4th and 5th at the Holiday Inn Yorkdale. And freelancers, as always, were part of the event.
CMG Freelance branch president Don Genova and a group of freelance delegates (pictured above) met to discuss plans for the freelance branch of the union and to join in on the convention’s plenary sessions.
One highlight of the convention included news that, after three years of steady job losses at our employers, things seemed to have levelled off. Loss of dues income to the union’s budget was drastic for the past few years, but members are hopeful that the worst is over.
The vote by employees at VICE to join the CMG was another major topic of conversation. Genova says the news, which broke late last week, represents good news for the future of the union.
“It gives us hope with organizing other digital broadcasters ,” he said. “There’s a younger demographic of media workers that’s not afraid of unions but realizes the benefits that come from membership.”
CMG members also said goodbye to CMG Vice-President Lise Lareau and CBC Branch President Marc-Philippe Laurin, both longtime union activists. Both have announced that they won’t seek elected office when their terms run out at the end of this year.
“Lise Lareau in particular has long championed the concept of the independent membership at the freelance branch and the importance of keeping the issues of precarious workers in mind while we bargain with our employers and stand up for their rights in the media landscape at large,” said Genova.
And CMG Freelance delegates were happy to hear that funding from our parent union, the Communication Workers of America, has been renewed.
This means we’ll be able to keep building our freelance branch over the coming year. We plan to continue providing support and advocacy for our members in areas such as contracts, rates, and professional development.
For information about the cost and benefits of membership in CMG Freelance, check out this information page.
CMG plans to raise freelance issues at Vice Canada bargaining table
A staff representative from the Canadian Media Guild says the union plans to address the working conditions of freelancers and temporary workers at Vice Canada when collective bargaining negotiations begin.
Last week employees at Vice voted in favour of unionization. CMG organizer Karen Wirsig says the employees who started the union campaign were aiming to improve the working conditions of everyone who contributes to the publication.
“People at Vice have never made huge distinctions between people who work here full time in the office and freelancers and contractors who come and go,” she told Story Board last week.
Although the bargaining unit that will negotiate a contract does not formally include freelancers or casual employees, the union is as concerned about those workers as they are about full time employees.
“Because we know that’s the tendency in this industry: to have more and more precarious work,” said Wirsig.
Lower pay and the convenience of hiring “just in time” producers has long made casual employees and freelancers attractive in the media industry, said Wirsig.
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Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer May 31-Jun 6
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:
- Talks break down as Chronicle Herald bosses tender offer worse than proposed four months ago [Rabble]
- CBC doubling down on digital strategy and investigative news in 2016-2017 [J-Source]
- VICE Canada employees vote to join CMG [CMG]
- Winnipeg Free Press sees success after one year of micropayments says publisher [J-Source]
- Writers’ Union of Canada launches
#WhyWritersMatter campaign [Quill and Quire] - Winners of the 2015 CAJ awards announced [J-Source]
- Writers Trust of Canada 2017-18 Berton House Writers-in-Resident [Writers Trust]
- Transcontinental sells 13 Saskatchewan newspapers and announces layoffs [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- 3 legal issues freelancers can’t afford to ignore [Freelancers Union]
- Want to get over your writer’s block? This exercise will help [The Write Life]
- 4 genius brainstorming techniques to yield your brightest ideas [Freelancers Union]
- Freelance Writer, Have You Assessed Your Reputation Lately? [Freelance Writing Jobs]
- What does it take to be a “full-service” digital journalism organization? Ask Discourse Media [Nieman Lab]
Last week on Story Board:
- VICE Canada employees have voted to unionize: Yesterday news broke that VICE Canada employees have voted in favour of joining the Canadian Media Guild…
- Freelance business basics: Sometimes we get so caught up looking for markets, doing research and interviews, sending queries, or writing our stories that we fail to take care of basic business housekeeping items. This can lead to missing opportunities that can actually improve our bottom line…
- 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…
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.
VICE Canada employees have voted to unionize
Yesterday news broke that VICE Canada employees have voted in favour of joining the Canadian Media Guild.
The labour board will soon issue a formal bargaining certificate. The bargaining unit will include all VICE employees across the country aside from managers and salespeople.
Vice freelancers are invited to share their concerns about their working conditions with the CMG in the meantime. CMG organizer Karen Wirsig recently told Story Board that once the campaign reaches the collective bargaining phase, the CMG will aim to bargain some improvements for freelancers into the contract.
If you’d like more information or would like to speak to Wirsig in confidence, you can call her at 416-578-1651 or reach her by email at karen@cmg.ca.
Freelance Business Basics
By Sandra Phinney
Sometimes we get so caught up looking for markets, doing research and interviews, sending queries, or writing our stories that we fail to take care of basic business housekeeping items. The result can be everything from being disorganized and overwhelmed, to missing opportunities that can actually improve our bottom line.
Here are a few things that might un-complicate your freelance life:
1. Create a query/client tracker. Why? If one of your goals is to send a lot of queries or contact potential clients on a regular basis (to round up new work), you need to keep track of both your efforts and the results. Otherwise, you can forget what you’ve put “out there” and lose track of outcomes.
I have a simple 5-column chart with these headers: Date; Name of client or magazine; Topic/Request; Follow up; Result/Notes. Reviewing and updating this once a week helps me to keep on top of what’s going on, and reminds me what to do next.
2. Create an invoice tracker. Here, I use an Excel spreadsheet and set it up so I can see at a glance my income to date as well as what’s owed to me. Here are the column headers I use: Client (name of magazine, newspaper e-zine or corporate client); Assignment (story topic/project); Projected invoice/amount; Actual invoice amount/date sent; Invoice date/paid; Accounts receivable. So at any given time I know what my projected income is for the year, what I’ve invoiced for and when, when I’ve been paid, if I’m owed money.
3. Create a To-do list. Basically I have two columns: DEADLINES (this is where I note story topic, word count and date due) and TO-DO, which is for everything else I should be doing. You can do this with a word doc and simply delete what you’ve done and add what needs to be done on a regular basis.
I like to have a hard copy so I use a three column sheet with lines, cross out or add items by hand, and cart the list around in my day book. This means I have to print a new to-do page every once in awhile and fill it out (being sure to carry over deadlines and un-finished “to-do” stuff ) but that’s how I like to operate. Matters not what method you use. What’s important is to have things written down and not in your head. We all need road maps.
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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 the challenges of crowdfunding, the power of storytelling, and the importance of having a community of freelancers for support.
SB: What kind of story grabs you as a writer?
RS: I’m really interested in medical and science stories. Medicine and science is really important because that is where so much public money goes, so it’s really important for the public to be able to understand these types of stories.
And I think and I hope that I’ve actually created a bit of a niche for myself in the sense that I am able to interpret difficult, complex science and medical jargon and translate it for a general readership.
But my true love, really, is international reporting. I think it’s really important for the west to know what is going on in the developing world. And you can only do that by telling stories and by connecting people through stories. There’s always a common humanity no matter where we live.
SB: Tell me about your documentary project, Mightier Than the Sword.
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Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer May 25-30
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:
- The Chronicle Herald union to meet with company, 4 months into strike [CBC]
- Postmedia Baron Godfrey’s Gobsmacking Audacity [The Tyee]
- Vice Canada not impacted by U.S., U.K layoffs [J-Source]
- What comes next for the Canadian Association of Journalists? [J-Source]
- Former exec fired by CBC over Ghomeshi scandal suing broadcaster [Toronto Star]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to Sell Viral News (Without Selling Your Soul) [The Freelancer]
- Want to Be a High-Earning Freelance Writer? 5 Skills You Need to Make it Happen [The Write Life]
- Want to crowdfund your journalism? Here are 10 tips for launching a successful campaign [Poynter]
- How to write the perfect pitch [Journalism.co.uk]
- The traveling freelancer: tips for working on-the-go [Freelancers Union]
- 9 ways to review and revise your writing [Poynter]
- How to Be (or Not to Be) an Advocacy Journalist [The Open Notebook]
- Digital media layoffs continue, this time at VICE News [Poynter]
Last week on Story Board:
- Striking Chronicle Herald Workers “Xpress” Themselves Online in Halifax News Rivalry: Striking newsroom workers of the Chronicle Herald relaunched their free news site, LocalXpress.ca, as a non-profit organization on May 19…
- Beyond Journalism panel discussion and networking event in Toronto June 2: Students, emerging media workers and freelancers are invited to a free panel discussion and mixer on Thursday, June 2 at the Page One Cafe & Bar (108 Mutual Street) in Toronto from 6 to 9 p.m…
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.
Striking Chronicle Herald Workers “Xpress” Themselves Online in Halifax News Rivalry
This post is the fifth in a series called “E-Lancer Writes,” exploring the working conditions, rights, and collective organizing strategies of freelance journalists, interns, and other low-wage or temporary digital media workers.
By Errol Salamon
Striking newsroom workers of the Chronicle Herald relaunched their free news site, LocalXpress.ca, as a non-profit organization on May 19. They made the move in order to expand news coverage and compete with their employer for ads. As a business model, Local Xpress is offering an unexpected test of worker-owned and controlled digital-first journalism.
“As middle-aged people who had been fairly set in our careers, it’s been both frightening and fun to do this,” wrote Local Xpress editor Pam Sword in an email. “As someone who grew up in the women’s liberation era, I also get a chuckle out of the fact that a digital news startup is led by a 59-year-old single mom, which kind of flies in the face of the geek guys and men-in-suits thing.”
The name Local Xpress is a play on words—“ex” (or former) press. The workers have been running the news site since January 30, one week after the strike began, with the support of the Halifax Typographical Union and their parent union CWA Canada.
CWA Canada president Martin O’Hanlon said Local Xpress has been taking readers away from the Herald. The union anticipates Local Xpress will put economic pressure on the company to settle the labour dispute now that the news site is selling ads.
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Beyond Journalism panel discussion and networking event in Toronto June 2
Students, emerging media workers and freelancers are invited to a free panel discussion and mixer on Thursday, June 2 at the Page One Cafe & Bar (108 Mutual Street) in Toronto from 6 to 9 p.m.
Panel speakers include writer and TV director Buffy Childerhose and digital journalist and novelist Angela Misri. They’ll offer advice on how to use your media skills to find different kinds of work and make an impact in your community.
There will also be plenty of time for meeting and networking with peers and colleagues. Snacks and drinks will be served.
This event is being presented by CWA Canada Associate Members — a free union membership for students, volunteers, interns and precarious media workers — in partnership with CMG Freelance.
You can find details about CWA Canada Associate Membership at www.emergingmediaworkers.ca.
And for more details about the event, or to register for your free ticket, check out this Eventbrite page.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer May 17-24
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:
- What will sustain investigative journalism? [J-Source]
- Media and free expression organizations apply for intervenor status in Vice court case [J-Source]
- Striking Halifax Chronicle journalists amp up parallel publication efforts [Globe and Mail]
- Local Xpress launches full-service news site to compete with Chronicle Herald [CBC]
- Digital pilot project funding available [Alberta Magazines]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- The New York Times of the future is beginning to take shape [Poynter]
- Enjoying Life on the Road? 7 Ways to Do More Travel Writing [The Write Life]
- How to Stop Procrastinating: 5 Foolproof Methods for Writers [The Write Life]
- PRX is creating a new company, RadioPublic, to bring mobile audio to bigger audiences [Nieman Lab]
- Vice’s Shane Smith: “Expect a bloodbath in media within the next year” [Digiday]
- Survey: How much do freelance journalists earn? [Journalism.co.uk]
- 5 common writers’ blocks and how to get around them [Freelancers Union]
- How to Recover From a Killed Story [The Freelancer]
- 5 ways to process failure and emerge undaunted [Freelancers Union]
- The Rest Is Advertising: Confessions of a sponsored content writer [The Baffler]
Last week on Story Board:
- The Born Freelancer says goodbye to DNTO: After 22 seasons, what was once CBC Radio One’s weekend pop culture flagship show has signed off the air for the last time…
- Portenier Human Rights bursary applications open: Applications for the Portenier Human Rights bursary are now open. The bursary provides $3000 worth of hostile environment training to a freelance journalist or independent documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on human rights abuses…
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.
