Friday, December 12, 2008

from the "reverse migration" dept.

I've been back nary a week and the economic climate in Canada scares me. More specifically, the media industry.

Is everyone getting laid-off? It sure seems like it.

For your humble freelancer, this is something of a problem. More skilled people on the street, fighting for dwindling freelance crumbs. Someone's going to go hungry.

Normally December is a freelancer's dream. More work than one could handle. I remember working all day at CBC and then running up Robson and pulling a night shift at CTV.

Those were the days.

But now, in addition to the increased competition, there seems to be far less opportunity. Slashed newsrooms don't need writers. Eviscerated promo departments don't need producers. And don't get me started on the print side of things.

But that's here, not everywhere. And during this time of change the key is keeping expenses low. A tough thing to do in Canada. A much tougher thing to do in Vancouver.

Is there a solution? Yes. Will I explain it? Yes. But not yet.

I have to crunch some numbers... and leave you with a cliffhanger!

Cheers!

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