for the last time…

I’m moving spots in the web again, FOR THE LAST TIME. I swear.
I’m over here now: http://www.lyndsiebourgon.com.
Nice new theme, right?

So, I’m Canada-bound again in the next few months. Permanently.

And to be honest, I’m totally excited. I know it’s a rough time for the media at home at the moment (as it is here), but I’ve definitely accomplished what I set out to by traveling and living in Edinburgh. Now, it’s time to pay some dues. Be unemployed, search for anything, become a “freelancer.”

I’m not naive, so I know what’s ahead of me will be hard. It’s hard enough to find some sort of media job during the best of times. But you have to start sometime, so I’m trying to keep my head up.

Let your ISP do all the work…

From the New York Times:

“The Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism, skeptical of applying micropayments to newspapers, has suggested providing access to newspaper Web sites for a fee paid at the Internet service provider level. For such models to succeed, newspapers would have to work together.”

Interesting idea. Over here in the UK they charge a television tax, which is given to public broadcasters. It allows the BBC to do high-quality reporting without worrying about advertisers or party politics. I imagine this would work (somewhat) in the same way. You pay your ISP fee and a bit goes to online news. Presto. Thoughts?

Maybe a bit slower than the US on the uptake, but Google Street View’s out in the UK now.

Here’s my street!

Well, the Seattle Post Intelligencer is the newest newspaper to go online-only.

Let’s hope that means they redesign their site. No one wants to read news off of a website that looks like this.

Think any Canadian papers will be next?

freelance a-go-go

I read this article in the Globe’s Report on Business, but I think it stretches beyond just the business journalism market.

Craig Silverman hands out some good tips for businesses looking to get publicity in business magazines, but his tips can also readily apply to freelance writers as well.

Some examples – like know the media you’re targeting, check the publication schedule, write a killer headline and tapping your contacts – are all good facets of a successful pitch (not that I’ve had that many, but Silverman’s tips are sure to help!).

So if you’re looking to freelance (and that doesn’t have to mean just writing) be sure to give this article a read.

The new pop culture

As an extension from my previous post about Creativity Killed the Recession, here’s an interesting excerpt from a profile in New York magazine:

The marketing term for people like me is “slash/slashers.” Like, I’m doing the yearbook plus my blog and making videos and working at a communications firm called Naked. We don’t want one path—we want to get involved in lots of creative projects… I call us the New Pop Culture, which might sound bold, but I believe it. We’re more influenced by what we’re up to—our own creative outputs—than what Karl Lagerfeld is up to. We are more interested in reading our friends’ blogs than Style.com. My friends and I don’t care about Lindsay Lohan; when we see a picture of a celebrity like Kanye West, we want to know who’s standing behind him. It’s cooler to be a real person. It’s our turn now.

This guy’s definitely not alone – isn’t this what we all want? I personally want to create multimedia content while freelancing and studying languages on the side. I’m not sure what you think, but instead of seeing this as lazy, or unmotivated, I think it’s the way of the future. You’re a brand, so put your label on whatever you like. That doesn’t mean you’re not a committed journalist (or whatever your vice is), it means you’re well rounded. Interesting. Employable. Take your pick.