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:

• Postmedia cuts jobs, print editions, adds paywalls: The roundup and reaction [J-Source] (via @natalieturvey)
• 5 questions to ask before you start to write your non-fiction book [PaulLima.com] (via @LuigiBenetton)

From the U.S. and beyond:

• Jonathan Franzen: the path to Freedom [The Guardian] (via @nota7bene)
• A doomed romance with a New Orleans newspaper [New York Times] (via @tommytomlinson)
• Amid tweets and slide shows, the longform still thrives [Adweek] (via @mediagazer)
• You can change the channel, but local news is the same [New York Times] (via @tinapittaway)
• On Journatic, and making it in Hyperlocalville [Columbia Journalism Review] (via @jayrosen_nyu)
• It’s 2012 already: why is opinion writing still mostly male? [Columbia Journalism Review] (via @mediagazer)
• NO WORRIES, PROFESSOR! Sometimes people in the real world like to work hard [Business Insider]
• Former public editor Okrent would like to see New York Times hire female ombud [Poynter]
• Globe Lab: breathing new life into journalism [NPR Boston] (via @wolfewylie)
• The one chart that should scare the hell out of print media [Poynter] (via @mathewi)
• Why we need to blow the article up in order to save it [GigaOM] (via @mediagazer)
• How important are all those ugly Tweet Buttons to news sites? [Nieman Journalism Lab]

From Story Board last week:

• Seeking part-time editor for Story Board: The Canadian Media Guild is seeking a part-time editor for Story Board, a blog that creates an online space for media freelancers in Canada.
• A Pinterest primer for curious journalists and writers: Another social network. If you’re already fatigued by Tweeting, Facebooking and Tumblring every time you publish a new story or photo, the suggestion you should “pin” it too might sound downright exhausting (and redundant). But some news organizations and journalists on Pinterest—where users pin images and text to boards organized by subject—are finding it’s an effective way to engage readers and reach new audiences. Should you try it out? We can’t give you a “yes” or “no,” but what we can provide are some tips we’ve gathered from around the web to help you decide if you should use Pinterest professionally.

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Spot a story you think we should include in next week's Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca.

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