Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer January 3-7

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:

• After restructuring and refinancing, what’s next for Postmedia? [Globe and Mail]
• Toronto Star apologizes for article plagiarized from Globe And Mail [Poynter]
• The Saint John 7 challenge false accusations by MBS Radio [CMG] (via @karenatcmg)
• Order of Canada recipients include journalists Andy Barrie, Stevie Cameron & Michael Enright [J-Source]

From the U.S. and beyond:

• The Brainstormer iPad app provides a cornucopia of ideas for creative minds [TUAW] (via @LuigiBenetton)
• 5 resolutions you can make to become a better journalist in 2013 [Poynter]
• How Media Professionals Can Use SoundCloud [Mediabistro] 
  
• Seven publishing trends that will define 2013 [Pando Daily] (via @journochat)
• Journalism Is Not Narcissism [Gawker] (via @picardonhealth)
• Andrew Sullivan Leaving Daily Beast to Start Subscription Web Site [Media Decoder]
• The merge: how our work-life balance is changing [The Guardian]
• 20 obsolete English words that should make a comeback [Matador Network] (via @LuigiBenetton)

From Story Board last week:

• CFU makes progress in negotiations over Canada Wide Media contract: A couple of months ago, we brought you details of Canada Wide Media’s new freelance contract. The contract raised a number of concerns for writers. Michael O’Reilly, President of the Canadian Freelance Union, took these concerns to Canada Wide Media last month, presenting a counter-offer on behalf of over 30 of Canada Wide’s regular freelancers…