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Robert Martin New York, NY
I am seeking a temporary or permanent assignment in Publishing/Printing, Desktop Publishing, Digital Pre-Press, or in the Intra-Company Publishing fields, using the skills and experience gained from a widely diverse background.
Freelance Experience in writing and DTP
• Development of press materials for major films from Sony Pictures Entertainment (Matilda, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, The Fifth Element) and MGM Studios (Hurricane Streets).
• Complete production duties for the one-shot small press publication Wonderama, a film nostalgia publication by Forrest J. Ackerman (of Famous Monsters magazine). Executed layout designs using Quark Xpress and Photoshop, restored aging newspaper photographs for republication, and handled complete digital pre-press, for this 100-page, perfect-bound publication.
• Developed “retro” designs and executed layout for The Bette Pages, a small press publication specializing in pin-up nostalgia, using Quark Xpress and Photoshop.
• Developed copy for the primary corporate identity brochure for Applied Graphics Technology, the prestige digital pre-press house.
• Co-Screenwriter of several low-budget horror-comedy screenplays for Shapiro - Glickenhaus Entertainment, one of which was produced for theatrical release, and another released directly to video.
• Fiction appeared in the NY Press weekly and in Toxic magazine.
• Development of the corporate website of Euro-Tank, LLC, manufacturers of environmentally safe storage devices for gasoline and diesel fuels, currently in progress (the site currently on view is not my work).
• A weekly “Page 3” column of human interest pieces for “The Gold Coast,” an entertainment supplement to The Jersey Journal, ran for one year.
Staff Experience
1994-1996, Editor, Sci-Fi Entertainment. Sovereign Media, Inc., Herndon, VA Sci-Fi Entertainment, later retitled Sci-Fi, is the “Official Magazine of the Sci-Fi Channel,” a consumer magazine in the SF Media category. With publication offices in Virginia, I handled all editorial and production from my New York residence, transmitting rough layouts in Quark Xpress to the Herndon offices. Under my editorship during its first years, Sci-Fi came to rival the sales of the traditional market leader, Starlog. At the end of 1994, I assisted in the launch of “The Dominion,” the cable network's ambitious science fiction web portal, providing HTML and graphics conversion of the magazine's content for republication on the World Wide Web.
1991-92, Managing Editor, CrimeBeat, The 54 Corporation, New York Handled development, trafficking, and production of features for this upscale retooling of the "True Detective" magazine genre. AdWeek named CrimeBeat “Best New Magazine of 1991” (a title shared with Allure, launched the same year). I also successfully convinced the publishers (veterans of traditional publishing) to allow me to set up an in-house workstation for graphic design and digital pre-press, which I configured and maintained. During this period, I gained a strong familiarity with the standard publishing software tools. Though I retained the title and the duties of a production editor, I worked with Art Director Derek Burton in creating original graphics in Photoshop and Illustrator, and complete page layouts in Quark Xpress.
1986-1987, Editor, Hard Rock Starlog Publishing Group, Inc., New York At my urging, Starlog’s publishers agreed to allow me to re-focus their rock entry, which was suffering from lackluster sales. With the help of co-editor Danny Fields, we developed the first newsstand magazine to focus on the subgenre of music known, at that time, as “speedmetal” or “metalcore.” Such bands as Metallica, Anthrax, and Soundgarden received their first national coverage in our pages. Sales figures showed significant signs of improvement; unfortunately a Jimmy Swaggart-led ‘anti-rockzine’ campaign ended our distribution in Wal-Mart and in several southern states, directly leading to the magazine's demise. The same approach to this new music trend subsequently worked very well for a number of other magazines, most notably Rip.
1979-1986, Editor, Fangoria Starlog Publishing Group, Inc., New York Applied principles established with Starlog to create the only successful horror-fantasy media magazine. I established Fangoria as unique in its field during my 6 years as editor, defining its format and approach to film, standards to which it still adheres. The magazine recently published its 200th issue.
1978, Associate Editor, Starlog Starlog Publishing Group, Inc., New York I joined the first mass-market Sci-Fi media magazine as it was still struggling to emerge from its initial, "start-up" phase. Assisted editor Howard Zimmerman in the preparation of the letters column and front-section news items.
1976-1978 Editorial Staff, Marketing Bestsellers North American Publishing Co., Inc., New York Marketing Bestsellers was a trade magazine directed to magazine and book dealers, emphasizing title selection and point-of-purchase techniques for maximizing impulse sales. As book review editor for two years, I was responsible for fifty capsule reviews of new releases each month. Shortly after my promotion to the post of editor, I left to accept a position with the Starlog Publishing Group.
References available on request.
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