JUMP TO JOURNALISM AREA or EDUCATION DETAILS
I have prepared this document on 26 July 2008 to inform you — or remind you — of the skills I have developed in my 27-year journalism career and related areas.
I include a section on education because the ability to learn new things seems ever more important in our changing work environment, and my documented track record as an excellent student is worth noting: four degrees from OSU, two national honor societies, three respected fellowships and sky-high GPA. I mention my teaching career because a teacher is first and foremost a student and secondly a communicator, both abilities being crucially important for journalism.
The attached information will show that on any given night at The Plain Dealer, I could:
• Edit copy.
• Lay out and paginate pages — or an entire section, including cover.
• Work the night picture desk.
• Reprocess images improperly rendered by the automated image-processing software.
• Post information to the Web, including numerous slide shows.
• Dash out to take a breaking-news photo if necessary.
• After work I could go home and on my own time create music for a PD Web project.
• Before work I might have taken some pictures for a Still Life slide show.
Granted, that would make for a very busy night, but I have the experience to cover all those areas, as the following pages will detail. I am also learning new things, video editing on my personal copy of Final Cut Express, for example.
This document has been prepared for the following Plain Dealer editors because it would seem that the more streamlined the newsroom becomes, the more important it is to have employees who can function in many areas and shift gears smoothly throughout the night, doing a variety of tasks with a variety of people, speaking many languages and translating across numerous newsroom domains.
Susan Goldberg
Debra Adams Simmons
David Kordalski
Bill Gugliotta
Daryl Kannberg
Elizabeth McIntyre
Michael Tribble
Jean Dubail
All of the following information can be verified; indeed, much of it already resides in my Plain Dealer file because it was provided with my job application in 1985. More details available on request.
• Night picture editor for the past two years.
• Pictures in The Plain Dealer: Dozens. Two picture pages recently: flowers and buildings. Had a six-column picture at the top of A1 in 2008.
• I can function as a backup news photographer when we are short-staffed. Had a fire picture in the paper this summer.
• Have shot studio photos for publication.
• Pictures on cleveland.com: Hundreds.
• Slide shows posted to cleveland.com: Heading toward 100.
• Took a full-page picture for a project that won an international design award.
• Recently learned how to fill in for our ever-shrinking pool of third-floor image processors; this means I can fix pictures mangled by the automated toning process so they don’t look awful in print editions of The Plain Dealer. I fixed 15 images in the past two weeks, most of them centerpieces for A1, B1 and the sports cover.
• Photos are often used by Cleveland Botanical Garden. Orchid 1. Orchid 2. Orchid 3.
NEWS DESK
• Assistant news editor for almost 20 years.
• Was one of three news desk coordinators for five years.
• As coordinator, I managed news desk staff on hundreds of occasions.
• Laid out Metro cover hundreds of times.
• Laid out inside Metro section hundreds of times.
• Laid out national section hundreds of times.
• Laid out Page One on various occasions.
• Was offered the chance to do Page One more often; declined because I did not care to work closely with the night-shift supervising editor, but he is no longer at the paper.
• Have worked the late makeup job hundreds of times.
• Numerous special projects, one of them with editor Doug Clifton.
• Was awarded a merit raise by Tom O’Hara.
COPY EDITING | WRITING
• Much writing and editing involved in slide-show production and posting.
• Copy editor for first five years of journalism career.
• Backup slot person at The Plain Dealer on a few occasions.
• Award-winning headline writer.
• Main copy editor on Plain Dealer’s pedophile priest project in late 1980s.
OTHER
• Wrote a column for Elyria Chronicle-Telegram for a year.
• Have published book reviews in The Plain Dealer and on amazon.com.
• Currently creating soundtrack music for a documentary film.
• Work with the Lorain County Visitors Bureau on photo and media projects.
• Almost 100,000 views on my Flickr photo pages.
• Had a desktop publishing company for two years.
WEB
• Post Still Life floral shows. Post Pictures of the Week slide shows and the nightly Eye on the Nation and Eye on the World shows; special breaking-news events also merit slide shows. My slide show duties are expanding even as I create this document.
• Create music for Plain Dealer Web projects. Must have almost 40 songs on our site.
• Created Plain Dealer newsroom Web site. No longer active.
• Created The Newspaper Guild Local 1 Web site. Almost inactive.
• Created a philosophy Web site called Rumors of Order. Wrote numerous essays.
• Created a music Web site to make it easy for Plain Dealer Web producers to preview music for upcoming projects.
• I have my own Web domain: www.fobes.net.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
• I bought a small video camera and Final Cut Express to learn video editing, so I can help Plain Dealer photographers and reporters with their projects if need be. Created my first video six days after buying the software.
• Recently purchased the full version of the Apple music software called Logic Studio. I have spent about $1,500 on software to produce music for cleveland.com.
• I own the Nikon camera equipment I use for my photography.
• I have owned a copy of Adobe Photoshop since 1992, always keeping updated on the newest version. The copy on my personal laptop is more current than the one on my work computer.
I mention my educational background because it indicates I have an aptitude for learning and a track record of high achievement.
In brief: Four degrees from Ohio State. Three respected journalism fellowships: Kiplinger, Poynter and Kalish. Two national honor societies. Two years as a high school English and journalism teacher (Caldwell, Ohio); also served as adviser for the school newspaper, literary magazine and yearbook. Three years as an English and journalism instructor at Ohio State. I worked with journalism students to produce the daily Ohio State Lantern; and I taught the basic English composition course for two years.
EDUCATION DETAILS
1984: M.A. in English from The Ohio State University. Majored in 20th Century American and British Literature and also Rhetoric and Composition (the teaching of writing).
1979: M.A. in journalism from The Ohio State University. During this time I was a Kiplinger Fellow, which aside from other coursework involved me in a yearlong public affairs reporting program that took me to the West Wing of the White House; a President Jimmy Carter press conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building; a Washington Post afternoon news meeting, attended by, among others, Ben Bradlee and Bob Woodward; the CBS Evening News control room in New York City as living legend Walter Cronkite sat majestically in the next room; and many other points of interest, like the Hawk ’n’ Dove on Pennsylvania Avenue.
1976: B.S. in education from The Ohio State University. Comprehensive English.
1974: B.A. in journalism from The Ohio State University.
1969: Graduate of Edgewood Senior High School in Ashtabula, Ohio.
GPA: Overall graduate-school GPA at Ohio State was 3.87 on a 4.0 scale, landing somewhere between A- (3.7) and perfect (4.0) for both master’s degrees. I had a 3.95 on a 4.0 scale for my B.S. in education and a 3.08 for my B.A in journalism. I was at Ohio State for seven years (not in a row) and attended Kent State University my first two years of college. Official red-stamp transcript should be in my Plain Dealer file.
HONOR SOCIETIES
1984, PHI KAPPA PHI: Was inducted into this national honor society for recognition of excellence as a graduate student while in the English department. Membership is by invitation only to the top 7.5 percent of second-semester juniors and the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students across all academic disciplines. In regards membership, “It means that you are among the very best and brightest that your university has to offer — not just in your chosen field of study, but among all academic disciplines.” — Phi Kappa Phi Web site.
1982-84, TWO COMMENDATIONS: Received two letters of commendation from the OSU graduate council for excellence in the English department.
1979, KAPPA TAU ALPHA: Was inducted into this national journalism honor society for excellence in journalism. Kappa Tau Alpha recognizes academic excellence in journalism and mass communication and is the seventh oldest national honor society, founded at the University of Missouri in 1910 in the world's first school of journalism. Membership must be earned by excellence in academics. “Selection for membership is a mark of highest distinction and honor.” — Kappa Tau Alpha Web site.
FELLOWSHIPS
The aforementioned yearlong Kiplinger Public Affairs Reporting Program. In autumn 1979 I was Ohio State’s representative at the three-month, 40-hour-per-week, newspaper-management program at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. In June 2007 I attended The Kalish, an intense one-week picture-editing workshop at Ball State.