SKILLS:
Employment | Education | Personal

Editorial:

• 5 ½ years editorial experience in on-line and printed sports journalism, writing, reporting and editing – with excellent depth of knowledge in Football and Motor Sport in particular.
• Three years experience of overall editorial responsibility for a commercial website, and of managing teams of freelance journalists.
• Excellent standard of English and high level of attention-to-detail.

Broadcasting:

• Three years experience of presenting and commentating on sport, mainly for the Internet and radio.

New Media:

• Extensive experience of digital image enhancement and manipulation, using Adobe Photoshop.
• Considerable experience of HTML, website and graphic design, using Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks.
• Strong understanding of digital video editing and multimedia content production, suitable for broadband technologies.
• Experience of using and of proposing development ideas for on-line content management systems.

Information Technology:

• Wide-ranging IT skills, particularly using Quark Express and Microsoft Office, Outlook and Windows software.

My most recent position was Content Editor for Premium TV, who run official websites and individual multimedia subscription zones for 80 professional football clubs in Britain. These include seven Premiership clubs and seventy Football League Clubs, as part of a joint venture with the Football League. I was made redundant in March 2003 when parent company NTL Europe withdrew some funding, causing an immediate reduction in centrally-produced content.

My responsibilities spanned several areas, including:

• Editor of Premium TV’s 2002 World Cup website, worldcuptournament.co.uk. This involved writing and editing news and feature content, while maximising revenue opportunities through on-line betting and mobile phone downloads.

• Co-ordinating teams of news journalists and freelance feature writers.
• Writing / subbing stories for ‘Football Latest’, a football news service across the PTV network.
• Writing / editing features and promotional articles across club sites and weekly e-mail newsletters.
• Writing / researching scripts for weekly ‘Divisional Highlights’ video round-ups on subscription zones.
• Reporting on away matches for the official Newcastle United website.
• Researching competitions and writing features for the official 2002 Worthington Cup Final website.
• Assessing the standards and identifying best and worst editorial practises across the network of PTV club sites.

Multimedia:

• Commentating on edited video highlights for individual club subscription zones.
• Nominating, organising and editing video clips for ‘Goal of the Month’ and ‘Save of the Month’ on-line votes.
• Logging and indexing video clips for the ‘Interactive Channel’, part of each club’s multimedia subscription zone.
• Preparing and editing video content for Leicester City World, Premium TV’s first multimedia subscription website.

Liasing With Individual Clubs And Webmasters:

• Managing the launch of each club’s own subscription zone, working closely with the respective media departments.
• Advising webmasters in editorial issues, such as image processing, article layout and design, HTML coding, site navigation and the usage of the on-line content management system.
• Conducting training seminars for club webmasters, and visiting them for extra training and troubleshooting.
• Taking an active role in interview technique training sessions for club-produced video news content.

General:

• Writing editorial training guides and user instructions for the on-line content management system.
• Demonstrating the content management system to prospective business partners, and helping the Rapid Development department pinpoint areas for it’s further enhancement.
• Developing promotional and editorial graphics for club websites.
• Liasing with photographic agencies.

Site Editor (and Staff Writer) for Sportlist.com, Gateshead: June 1999 to September 2000

Previously, I was the Editor of Sportlist.com, an event-driven sports TV listings website that featured previews of televised sporting events on all British terrestrial and digital satellite channels. We also provided the ‘Sport on TV’ guide on the Freeserve.com website, where Sportlist content was integrated into the Freeserve identity. My responsibilities included:

• Full, day-to-day control over the content (text and imagery) in each sport’s editorial column.
• Previewing Football, Athletics, Motor Sport, Cycling, Skiing, Snooker and Extreme Sports programmes every week.
• Deputising for Cricket, Rugby Union, Tennis, Golf, Basketball and American Football writers when necessary.
• Showcasing five televised sporting highlights on the home page, each day.
• Appointing and supervising an editorial assistant, and a team of sport-specific freelance journalists.
• Writing a weekly e-mail newsletter to subscribers.
• Maintaining databases of editorial content and TV listings.

A portfolio of my work for Sportlist.com can be seen here.

• Freelance Football Biographer for Match Magazine, EMAP plc, Peterborough: May 2001
• Data Researcher for 'Championship Manager', Sports Interactive Ltd: May 2000 to date
• Freelance Football Journalist / Sub-Editor / Newscaster for TeamTalk, Leeds: April - June '99
• Sports Journalist for PA News, Leeds (Work Experience): April '99
• Sports Journalist for Bradford Telegraph & Argus Newspaper (Work Experience): September '98
• Freelance Football Writer / Reporter for Sport First, Lincolnshire Echo & Yorkshire Sport Newspapers: June '98
• Data Consultant for 'Giant Killers', On-line Software Publishing: August '98 - May '99
• Sports Editor for 'Scrapie' - University of Bradford Student Union magazine: Sept '97 - June '98
• Assistant Sports Correspondent at BBC Radio Lincolnshire (Work Experience): August '97
• Saturday Sports Show Presenter for RamAir FM, University of Bradford: November '96 - June '99
• Voluntary Radio Presenter for Rauceby Hospital, Lincolnshire: September '95 - December '96

University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire: September '96 - June '99
BSc (Hons) 2(I) in Electronic Imaging & Media Communication

Studying such a multi-disciplinary subject gave me skills in a wide range of new media fields, including website design, HTML coding, multimedia, graphic design, photography and image manipulation.

For my individual final year project, I produced an interactive multimedia football magazine on CD-ROM. It integrated my research and writing of each feature with the graphical design of the layout and user interface, and my own photography, audio, video and 3D animation.

Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford, Lincolnshire: September '89 - June '95
4 A-Levels: General Studies (A), Computing (C), Maths & Statistics (C), French (D)
9 GCSEs: French (A), English Language (B), English Literature (B), Maths (B), Geography (B), History (B), German (C), Double Award Science (CC)

Dixie Grammar School, Market Bosworth, Leicestershire: September 1988 - July 1989

My commitment to, and obsession with sport extends well beyond the confines of the office, and I particularly relish the drama and atmosphere of major sporting occasions.

This enthusiasm has taken me to seven matches in Euro '96; the San Siro Stadium where AC Milan clinched Serie A with a 7-1 win over Cremonese; the Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans 24-hour races; the RAC Rally (seven times); Test Match Cricket and European Cup Athletics, all whilst following Lincoln City FC up and down the country, from Berwick to Bournemouth!

My other hobbies include computing and the Internet, music, tennis, table tennis, weight training and travelling, both at home and abroad.

last updated March 2003