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: 

• Walrus unpaid interns are back -- with pay [Toronto Star]
• Torstar's Harlequin romance ends: sold to Newscorp for $455 million [Globe and Mail]
• New report looks at the impact of digital media on Canadian journalism [J-Source]
• Newscorp to acquire Harlequin [Newscorp]
• The Walrus and L’actualité lead the list of National Magazine Awards nominees [Canadian Magazines]
• Media union kicks off new supports for freelance workers amid global challenges this International Workers Day [CMG]
  
• Why j-schools should foster entrepreneurship [J-Source]
• Multiple Income Streams for writers [PWAC Toronto] (via @LuigiBenetton)

From the U.S. and beyond:

• Stuff happens: Taking time off as a freelancer [Freelancers Union]
• 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Work-Life Balance [The Fiscal Times] (via @freelancersu)
• Sorry, but internships are not "opportunities" until you pay us [The Guardian] (via @LuigiBenetton)
• 5 Scientifically Proven Ways to Beat Procrastination [Inc.] (via @ECRMagazine)
• Common freelance mistakes (and how to avoid them) [Freelancers Union]
• Going Nuts Working From Home? Five Sanity-Saving Tips [Forbes]
  
• Rejected: One man’s endless search for a media internship [Salon] (via @romenesko)
• 5 Marketing Strategies for Writers Who Hate Promoting Their Own Work [The Write Life]

Last week on Story Board:

• Coding + Storytelling = New Hybrid Career: For the latest Digital Media Mixer events on April 24th and 30th, 2014, CMG Freelance invited media, tech, creative and communications workers to hear from peers who are squaring the circle and trying to use these hybrid skills in coding and storytelling to do work that’s meaningful to them...
• 2014 Peter Gzowski Life Literacy Fellowship: Have you got an interest in literacy? ABC Life Literacy Canada is looking for applications for its 2014 Peter Gzowski Life Literacy Fellowship...
• 2014 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards: Submissions are open for this year’s Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards. The book and magazine awards have been given annually since 2004 for excellence in research and storytelling on subjects related to social justice...

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.