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The Weekly Wrap: Creative & Freelance News

Israel Arrests Palestinian PhotoJournalist

Israeli security forces arrested photojournalist Bilal Hamid al-Taweel on June 11 and are still holding him, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

His brother said soldiers broke into the family’s house in the West Bank at dawn and arrested al-Taweel and seized his cell phone, laptop and camera without providing a reason.

Al-Taweel mainly publishes photos and video of protests and life under occupation to his social media accounts.  Some are picked up by the media. He’s best known for a photo showing an attack on an Israeli soldier that was popular with news outlets in October 2015.

CPJ has called on authorities to either release him or announce the charges against him.

Creatives Are Job Hoppers

Most creative professionals do not stay in a job for more than five years, according to research from UK creative recruitment agency Aquent/Vitamin T.

Those surveyed include employees and freelancers. Of them, 96% say they do not stay in a job for longer than five years, and half say they leave within two years.

Although creatives switch jobs, the data shows most are happy in their positions. But 35% say the main reason for leaving a position is lack of career progression, in terms of pay and role, Design Week reported.

Did You See The Creative Job Openings For This Week?

Ogilvy Vows To Hire 20 Female Creatives

Ogilvy’s co-chairman and chief creative officer Tham Khai Meng vowed to hire 20 senior creative women globally by the end of 2020. And he promised New York-based ad company would deliver a pipeline of senior women of color over the next two years.

To help create an action plan for this mission, Ogilvy is teaming up with Kat Gordon and the 3% Movement, an initiative focused on spurring the number of female creative executives to 50%. Campaign


Creatives Shift From Cafes To Co-Working Space

A growing number of freelancers and creatives across the Quad-Cities in Iowa are switching from cafes to co-working spaces. In the past five years, the number of co-working locations in the area has grown and several organizations are now looking to expand.

For users, the attraction to co-working spaces includes flexibility, access to equipment, low overhead costs and the opportunity to be around others. With people from all different fields interacting, it often leads to interesting collaborations, says Quad City Times.

With more millennials entering the workforce and the number of mobile workers already on the rise, industry insiders say co-working will expand. And they believe the co-working scene in the Quad Cities is just on the forefront and what it will eventually become.

LA Times Has New Owner

Monday Biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong completed his purchase and took control of the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune and the rest of the California News Group. The move brings the LA Times back under local ownership for the first time in nearly two decades, as the last owner Tronc was based in Chicago.

Regarding his purchase, Soon-Shiong said “[The papers] are the voice for our state, the nation and the world and must be preserved.

“[They] must continue to serve as beacons of truth, hope and inspiration for our communities,” KTLA 5 says he added.

Anchor Podcasting Available on iPad

Anchor, a podcasting platform, is now offering its mobile podcasting tool on the iPad. It allows you to record, edit, and distribute your podcast anywhere, including iTunes and Google Play Music, says TechCrunch.

With the iPad version of Anchor, you can use a real microphone, drag and drop audio files from other apps, and you can review your notes while you record. You can trim your recording and split the audio into clips so that you can move them around and insert other content, such as music or transition sounds, in between the clips.

Right now, Anchor is free, but eventually, the company wants to add monetization tools for podcasters so the company can take a cut.

PayPal Buying Hyperwallet

PayPal announced they’re paying $400 million for Hyperwallet, a company that allows individuals and small businesses to receive payments for products and services. It interlinks cash networks, card schemes and mobile money services with domestic ACH networks around the world.

PayPal expects Hyperwallet to improve its ability to provide e-commerce payment solutions that world, says TechCrunch.

Adobe Wants To Be Creatives Solution

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s CEO, wants the company to be the go-to platform for creatives.

“Whether you’re doing high-end video for the mobile or for the silver screen, whether you’re doing augmented reality — immersive media, as we call it — we want Adobe to be the only company that has the end-to-end solution,” he told CNBC’s Jim Cramer

Last month, Adobe acquired the Magento Commerce Cloud. The company believes adding the e-commerce platform to the Adobe Experience Cloud will allow them to offer a single platform that suits both business-to-business and business-to-consumer needs, reported Silicon Valley Business Journal.

What Else Is New

Keepsafe launched a browser focused on privacy. You can lock the browser with a PIN, and it supports Touch ID, Face ID and Android Fingerprint, says TechCrunch. You can browse in normal mode where trackers are blocked but cookies and caching are allowed, or in a private tab where everything is erased after you close it. It’s available free iOS and Android.

Gigged written by journalist Sarah Kessler offers deeply-sourced, up-close-and-personal accounts of our new economy, where one in three American workers is now a freelancer. It follows a wide range of individuals from across the country to provide a nuanced look at how the gig economy is playing out in real-time.


Freelance journalist Phillip Wearne died at age 60. He worked as a freelance journalist, TV producer and author all over the world, says The Guardian.

His work includes a widely praised study of the indigenous peoples of the Americas called  Return of the Indian: Conquest and Revival in the Americas and the Pulitzer-nominated, co-written book Tainting the Evidence, which takes a critical look at the FBI’s forensic work.


Charles Krauthammer, a prominent Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and commentator for the Fox News Channel, died at age 68, NPR confirmed.

Krauthammer was a conservative who was well known for his contrarian positions.

So folks, that’s your Weekly Wrap. If happy hour calls, please answer responsibly.

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