Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, communications, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?

From Canada:

• Treat stories about suicide with dignity and compassion [J-Source]
• Call for Judges: 42nd National Magazine Awards [Magazine Awards]
• Can Canada's artistic middle class be saved? [Toronto Star]
• Combining dog walking and freelancing is the way I get by in a gig economy [CBC]

From The U.S. and beyond:

• No freelancer is an island [The Freelancer]
• Where should you put your politics as a freelancer? [Freelancers Union]
• All The Tricks You Need To Get A Scoop Without Any Contacts [Journo Resources]
• 5 tips for setting your freelance rates [Freelancers Union]
• Should you pitch a journalist via social media? These 3 journalists say no [Muck Rack blog]
• 5 Things to Consider if You Think Freelancing is in Your Future [Inc]
• The Pitch: Can’t wait? A Marie Claire editor tries to answer pitches within 48 hours [Nieman Storyboard]

Recently on Story Board:

• Freelance contracts a hot topic at Level Up conference in Toronto: Read your contracts. That was the overarching message from the opening session at the recent Level Up conference in Toronto...
• Reporting responsibly on labour and class: Alex Press had to do a lot of convincing to get the Washington Post to run her story about 260,000 UPS workers who were threatening to strike. The American workers were fighting a treacherous new contract that would have repercussions not only for unions but for working people in general...

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.