John W. Fee

john@johnfee.net

Experience

John and Vickie Fee Creative Services

Clients include Suburban Community Newspaper Group (Cordova and Germantown editions of The Shelby Sun Times, and The Collierville Independent), United States Junior Chamber of Commerce

· Provided organization and leadership for newspaper office that lost editor and production manager

· Handled majority of layout duties using QuarkXPress along with editing while consistently sending newspapers to press on time

· Event photography for national conference

Suburban Community Newspaper Group

VP of Editorial Operations (2006-2008) for SCNG with 12 community newspapers in the Memphis metropolitan area

· Directed management of SCNG editors

· Developed budget for editorial department

· Coordinated group efforts in news coverage through story sharing initiative and promoting advanced planning

· Provided advice to editors and publishers concerning legal and ethical issues in reporting and advertising content

· Troubleshoot printing, computer, networking problems for five offices in two states

· Coordinated Internet content and website development

Publisher of The Millington Star and The Bluejacket (2007-2008), Interim Publisher of Fayette County Review (2007)

· Oversight of business operations of newspapers including budgeting and hiring

· Worked closely with ad manager to define monthly/weekly sales goals; and with ad staff (including making sales calls) to meet goals through newspaper, classified, special section and Internet sales

· Developed a customer-service oriented front office staff by empowering them to make decisions such as offering extra free newspapers to customers with delivery problems or additional advertising if appropriate for previous ad problems and saving the revenue rather than just offering a refund

Interim Editor of Southaven Press (2006)

· Immediately took charge of news operations after previous editor left company

· Retained news staff and grew local content

· Instituted cost savings by better placement of color advertising

Bartlett Newspapers, Inc.

Editor (2003-2006), The Bartlett Express and The Cordova Beacon

· Led the editorial team of reporters and freelancers to consistently produce Tennessee Press Association award-winning publications

· Laid out all front pages as well as inside pages and special sections

· Wrote weekly columns (Tennessee Press Association First Place winner) with an emphasis on local issues, people, places and events

· During sale of newspapers, handled many publisher duties while publisher/group publisher was heavily involved in sale

johnfee.net (2000-2003)

Editor/Writer/Photographer (2000-2003), provided editing, reviews and photography of places of interest to affluent travelers for Internet sites

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (cnhi)

Editor/Publisher (1998-2000), The Millington Star, a weekly community-oriented newspaper with three affiliated weekly publications and website

· Responsible for all business operation of newspapers

· Led news staff for award-winning community newspaper

Skills

· Budgeting

· Staff development and training (such as developing a news staff-run weekly training program that covered topics from ethical issues to photography tutorials)

· Circulation (including promotions)

· News, feature and column (TPA first place award) writing and editing

· Photography (digital and film)

· PC and Macintosh literate

· QuarkXPress, PageMaker, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat and Microsoft Office

· Digital prepress operations including creating separations using Acrobat Distiller

Activities

· Leadership Millington 1999-2008: graduate, steering committee member

· Bartlett Area Chamber of Commerce board member (2007), All-Star Team award (2006)

· Leadership Bartlett 2004: graduate

· Bartlett Education Foundation board member (2003-2007)

· Bartlett/Cordova Rotary Club (2003-2007)

· Millington Jaycees 2000-2008: past president, Tennessee life member

Education

BS degree, photojournalism, Secondary area: English, Arkansas State University