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?
“A topic is not a story.” A postmortem of a postmortem on Columbia: One of the most difficult but also most valuable lessons I’ve learned in making the transition from scientist to science journalist is that a topic is not a story. Scientists are often driven by passion for topics – bat behavior, particle acceleration, human genome sequencing… Journalists, in contrast, need a narrative. It’s their vehicle to tempt readers to embark on a story and stay aboard for the ride…
