Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Oct 7-14

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: 

• Jesse Brown dishes on Canadaland and why we need more media criticism [J-Source]
• What the Postmedia-Sun deal will mean for the future of Canadian journalism [Globe and Mail]
• Newspaper ownership concentration in Canada [J-Source]
• Postmedia strikes $316-million deal to buy Quebecor’s English papers [Globe and Mail]
• Postmedia strikes $316M deal to buy Sun Media English papers [J-Source]
• Postmedia buys Sun Media’s English-language newspapers [Poynter]

From the U.S. and beyond:

• Journalism’s biggest competitors are things that don’t even look like journalism [GigaOM]
• How Stephen King teaches writing [The Atlantic] (via @LuigiBenetton)
• 19 Websites and Magazines That Want to Publish Your Personal Essays [The Write Life]
• Longreads: Now Publishing Original Storytelling [Fast Company]
• What to say when you need a deadline extension [Freelancers Union]
• Ask A Freelancer: Can I Freelance and Still Keep a Job? [Contently]
• 5 Questions for Jill Abramson [Nieman Reports]
• Ask a Freelancer: How Do I Compete With Young Writers? [Contently]
• What to do when you’re completely overwhelmed [Freelancers Union]

Last week on Story Board:

• Jesse Brown launches Patreon campaign to fund his independent podcast, Canadaland: Jesse Brown saw an empty space on the Canadian media landscape. So he filled that niche with Canadaland, a weekly media criticism podcast that started a year ago this week…
• Applications for the Canadian Nieman Fellowship now open: The Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship is currently accepting requests for applications for the 2015-16 academic year…

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.