Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer July 30-August 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:

• Carleton launches crowdfunding campaign to build J-Source/ProjetJ office [J-Source]
• CBC meteorologist  breaks Guinness World Record for Longest Career as a Weather Forecaster [CBC]
• Canadian travel publishing hits its stride [J-Source] (via @twuc)
• Torstar profit plunges 44 per cent [Globe and Mail] (via @sladurantaye)
• Moody’s sounds warning about Postmedia [Globe and Mail] (via @sladurantaye)

From the U.S. and beyond:

• Washington Post to be sold to Amazon founder for $250 million in cash [Washington Post]
• New York Times Company Sells Boston Globe [New York Times]
• 16 newsgathering tools every journalist should know about [Journalism.co.uk]
• What Does a Literary Agent Want to See When They Google You? [The Write Life] (via @twuc)
• Website counts male, female bylines in New York Times [Poynter]
• Pressfolios, a new way for journalists to collect and present their work [J-Source]
• The Bradley Manning verdict is still bad news for the press [Guardian] (via @NiemanLab)
• Publishers, you need to pay the writers [Overland] (via @paythewriters)
• Should We Write What We Know? [Opinionator] (via @twuc)
• Buzzfeed ruins the written word for everyone forever [Melville House]

From Story Board last week:

• NDP petition calls for Urban Worker Strategy: The NDP has launched a petition calling for the implementation of a “pan-Canadian Urban Worker Strategy” to better support the growing number of Canadians who suffer under precarious working conditions…
• New audio app offers collaborative potential: “It’s like Google Docs, but for audio,” says The Scope at Ryerson of the new app they’re developing…

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.