If you're looking for words that tell a story with accuracy and fervor, let's talk.
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 39 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 20 years ago), 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 to grad students, advised start-ups, dabbled in political campaigns, mentored young writers, and always looked 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. If it'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.
Every weekday morning, I write Around the Net in Brand Marketing, a online roundup of marketing news for MediaPost. I enjoy juggling a variety of other assignments in between, and am fond of tight deadlines and good causes. I recently relaunched The Elephant on Main Street, an interactive community about addictions and recoveries, as a website and a social network.
I am editorial director of Makena Peace Team/Geneva, a startup global conflict intervention collaborative, overseeing the NGO's journalistic advocacy efforts. Using the storytelling tools and techniques of journalism, we advance the cause — and portray the fundamental dignity — of victims of conflict.
I am webmaster of Catlife Photography, my wife Deirdre's collection of fine art photographs of cats being cats (and a few dogs being dogs) from her first career as a photojournalist. I double as traffic manager and triple as chief shipping clerk — at least until Internet sales reach the six-figure mark. (I hesitate to venture into Sales, but the prints do make great gifts.)
I wrote WebWorks: Advertising (Rockport Publishers, 2000) and, with new products expert Robert M. McMath, What Were They Thinking? (Times Books, 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), BackChannel for the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAAs), 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 AAAAs and M2 conferences.
I've expanded into covering health and social issues after focusing on marketing, media and personal finance for the past 20 years. I also launched The Elephant on Main Street: An Interactive Memoir of Addictions and Recoveries. I wrote the lead article for a nationally syndicated five-part series about addiction and recovery. I am an adviser to Outpost for Hope.
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.