Thom Forbes

I  write Top of the News, a daily aggregation and commentary on brand marketing, for MediaPost's Marketing Daily. I am also a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer, and a fitness expert and coach on Sharecare.com who focuses on working with people in recovery. RecoveringYourBody.com is under development. I recently launched RenewEveryDay.com and related social media for Renew Media and wrote the "Recovering Your Body" column for Renew magazine.

My first published piece — advice to a reader on how to humanely trap a raccoon — appeared in the New York Daily News Action Line column 40 years ago. Since then, I've reported, written, edited, consulted and spoken in just about every medium about many topics. I've run editorial staffs and consulted on a variety of projects, but have primarily been a freelance writer and editor since 1990.

I've written books, organized conferences, ignited startups, reported on murders, marketers and stickball games, ghosted white papers, delivered presentations, been a columnist for media trade magazines, written profiles and cover stories, edited Adweek and TheDeal.com, launched websites, created newsletters, started a magazine about second homes (just as Wall St. crashed in the late '80s), written cover stories for custom publications, published technology advertorials for the New York Times, ghostwritten business pieces, conducted proprietary research, advocated for treatment for substance abuse and mental illness, taught communications, advised start-ups, dabbled in political campaigns, mentored young writers, and always look forward to a new challenge. On that score, I did some cable TV a few years ago. 

If it's something I haven't done before, I'm probably interested in trying it. Ifit's something I have done, I'll bring my broad experience to the project. T.H. Forbes Co. is nothing if not versatile, involved in everything from consulting to book proposals to ghosting white papers and political op-eds and websites. 

I am fond of tight deadlines and good causes. I wrote the lead article for a syndicated newspaper series about addiction and recovery. I have been an adviser to Outpost for Hope and Makena Peace Team.

I wrote WebWorks: Advertising (Rockport Publishers, 2000) and, with new products expert Robert M. McMath, What Were They Thinking? (Crown, 1998). I've contributed cover stories, columns, and articles to a variety of business and consumer publications including UBS' Symposium, Booz Allen's strategy+business, Advertising Age, Dex' Your Business, Agency, Folio:, NetGuide, Selling, Consumer Reports, and NewsInc. 

I've been online since 1983, when I was a news writer for a market test that became Prodigy Interactive Services, and have developed several products for the web including Advertising Online, one of the four original About.com channels (in fact, I also wrote the first marketing brochure for its predecessor, The Mining Company). I created BackChannel for the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), and RockNews.com for MJI Broadcasting. I was conference chair of ThunderLizard Production's acclaimed "Web Marketing" and "Web Advertising" conferences in the late '90s, and have spoken on, or run panels at, many other venues including "FolioShow," "MacWorld," and the 4As and M2 conferences.

I am a fourth-generation newspaperman who started at the New York Daily News in 1969 as a 16-year-old copyboy. I later becames a general assignment reporter and features copy editor at the paper. I was editorial director of Adweek, Adweek's Marketing Week (now Brandweek), Marketing Computers and other publications from 1986 - 1990, and editor-in-chief, digital media for The Deal (2000-2001). 

For books, I am represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.