Lisa Hrabluk

More than the pages there were once printed on, I hope.

Two interesting developments, one here in Canada and the other in the U.S., provide insight into the evolution of journalism and freelance writing.

Eye Weekly, a free arts and culture tab in Toronto, writes about Derek Finkle’s attempts to start a freelance writers agency, to represent the interests of Canada’s top freelance writers and demand higher fees from publications. Finkle, the former editor of the defunct men’s mag Toro!, decries the Canadian mag industry’s refusal to raise freelance rates.

“Why shouldn’t I be able to have a career trajectory? The problem is, the system doesn’t make any sense … What needs to happen can’t be done by individuals, but the idea of putting together an agency that represents 150 or 200 of the top freelance writers in the country, it could certainly impose a career arc on the industry.

“One of the consequences is that the talent pool starts to dry up. What happens is you’re in your early to mid-20s, you want to be a freelance writer, you go gung-ho, you work at it, you try to move up the ladder as it were, and write for bigger and more prominent publications. And then, if you happen to be one of the people who manage to get to the top of the ladder, and you stay there for a few years, you realize that it’s still a real struggle. What happens is, the good ones end up in New York.”

To find out more, check out www.canadianwritersgroup.com.

So while Canadian freelancers are fighting the good fight to raise rates for everyone – Go Finkle! Go! – The Christian Science Monitor announced that it was putting its print edition to bed for good. The ink-stained wretches of the print edition will henceforth be the tendonitis-afflicted hackers as the Monitor goes online in April 2009.

The method of delivery and format are secondary” and need to be adjusted, given Mrs. Eddy’s call to keep the Monitor “abreast of the times.”

As paper gives way to pixels, dare we dream that resources will be directed towards content, otherwise known as writers, photographers and editors?

Now that’s change I want to believe in.