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The Weekly Wrap: Writing & Freelance News

Freelancers Sexually Harassed More Than Workers

54% of self-employed creatives have been sexually harassed at least once compared to 48% of female employees in the U.S., according to research from Honeybook, a platform for creative small businesses.

The top forms of harassment freelancers experienced were unprofessional comments on appearance, being called demeaning nicknames and physical intimidation, the data found.

If you’re shocked freelancers are sexually harassed more than employees, you’re not the only one. Here are more details about that report.

Daily News Editors Fired For Sexual Harassment

Editors Rob Moore and Alexander Jones have been fired from the Daily News following sexual harassment complaints.

Moore was managing editor of news and Alexander Jones was the Sunday editor.

Both were suspended last week pending further investigation into the allegations. Apparently, the findings weren’t in the editors’ favor because they are “no longer with company,” the New York Post reported.

Research: Longer Blog Posts Perform Better

Apparently, longer tends to be better.

Long form content outperforms short form content by over 40% according to a Website Magazine infographic based on 12 studies.

Most professional bloggers write posts over 1,000 words. In fact, in 2017, the average blog word count was 1,142 words. The data also determined that the best length for your blog headline is 11 words.

Check out the other stats that could improve your blog here.

Walmart Bringing Japanese E-book Business to U.S.

Walmart inked a deal with Rakuten, which is the so-called Amazon of Japan. Under the terms of that deal, Walmart will become the exclusive U.S. retailer for Kobo, a business that offers about 6 million e-book and audio book titles. Walmart will sell the Kobo device, and the two companies plan to launch an app for e-books.

The Kobo device and book catalog will be available later this year, reported Bloomberg.

Actress Maisie Williams Launching An App For Creatives

Actress Maisie Williams plans to launch a mobile app for creatives called Daisie. The goal is to give creatives a place to get exposure and make connections. It’ll allow creators to network, like, share and collaborate on projects, says TechCrunch.

Williams wants Daisie to be more effective for self-promotion than existing social media sites. And one of the ways, she plans to accomplish that is by making the platform ad-free.

The project is currently four months into a 10-month build. So, Daisie isn’t expected to launch until August 2018. If you’re interested, you can sign up for updates here.

Facebook Viewers and Usage Drop

Facebook lost 700,000 daily active users in the U.S. and Canada last quarter. Time spent on the platform declined by about 50 million hours a day. That sounds like a big number but, according to TechCrunch it’s just over 2 minutes a day per user.

Facebook believes those results are a one-time decline, not a trend. They believe it’s the successful outcome of changes the company made to improve user well-being, including changes to the news feed and viral videos.

Calendar

February 25:

Deadline for submissions for the 54th Annual Golden Quill Awards, which recognizes excellence in broadcast, photographic, video, and digital journalism. This award is limited to participants in select areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. If you’re interested, get more details here.

February 28:

Deadline for submissions for Glimmer Train‘s New Writer Award. This fiction writing contest is only open to emerging writers. The 1st place prize is $2,500. Get the rules and submit here.

Also:

Writer Nicholas von Hoffman died at 88. He is described as “provocative” and reportedly labeled himself as a “creative troublemaker.” Hoffman was an author, broadcast commentator and syndicated columnist. His work includes a decade of writing for the Washington Post and over a dozen books including a best-selling biography of Roy M. Cohn, reported the New York Times.

Robyn Karney died at 77. She was a film writer and literary editor. Her work included co-writing the Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide and being editor-in-chief of Chronicle of Cinema, according to Book Business.

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