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:

• Will anti-spam legislation endanger magazine gift subscriptions? [Canadian Magazines]
• Insider tips: Editors’ advice on pitching articles [Masthead]
• Amazon shutters its Canadian newsstand [Globe and Mail] (via @Masthead)
• Are ebooks the new journalism frontier? [J-Source]

 

From the U.S. and beyond:

• How journalists can create better explainers [Poynter]
• 5 Tips for Preventing Procrastination [Freelancers Union]
• Journalism is dead; long live journalists [Tam Harbert]
• Personal Branding Tips for Freelancers [Freelancers Union]
• Overwhelming vote for strike action at Guardian and Observer [NUJ] (via @mediagazer)
• Newspaper owner fires business-side staffers to boost editorial [Romenesko]
• Why Being a Workaholic is Counterproductive [Young Entrepreneur] (via @freelancersu)
• Lights, camera, action! The definitive list of films for journalists [Wannabe Hacks] (via @journochat)

 

From Story Board last week:

• Transcontinental Media agreement expands copyright demands: There’s a new Transcontinental Media contributor agreement and it’s not going to bring writers any joy. The publisher, whose most popular titles include Elle Canada, Canadian Living, Style at Home, The Hockey News and Vancouver Magazine, has made significant changes to the 2009 version of their agreement...
• CMG resolves complaint, gets freelancer paid: The Canadian Media Guild helped get a CBC freelancer paid this week. The freelancer had not been paid the appropriate rate for several years and had never been asked to sign a contract. Despite the fact that the problems occurred a number of years ago, the CMG settled the dispute and managed to negotiate appropriate compensation...