Chilly day for a North Church steeple selfie.
As our record-setting winter begins to melt away, I’m putting the freeze-frame on one particularly amazing statistic: January and February were the first months since I was a kid that I put more miles on my bike and boots than on my automobile.
I know my car is around here somewhere.
In fact, I felt like a kid – pulling on my striped navy blue snowpants during one single-digit dusting, then saddling up to pedal the panoramic New Castle loop. Or capping a back-roof shoveling session with my brother by filming “Moron leaps off building into snow pile” (see video).
My winter wonderland wanderlust led me on bicycle icicle photo safaris.
To the peak of the Peirce Island snow mountain.
To Fort Constitution, where a young Coast Guardsman’s duties that day included politely ordering me off the massive seaside stone wall where I was posing my bike for still life with lighthouse motif.
To land’s edge, the jetty at New Castle’s town common – light wind, mild flurries. To the new Sagamore Bridge, the water teeming with green-topped, yellow-beaked, orange-footed fishermen.
This wrought-iron waterfront photo-op, only in New Castle.
The snow-covered path crunches as it winds through South Street Cemetery – cold stones marking local souls from centuries past – circling back to Market Square.
To the top of the parking garage for a North Church steeple selfie.
Confession: The reason I found myself with extra hours for frosty fun was this. My lifelong career as a newspaperman was frozen.
Yes, the ink-o-nomic chill that’s been shrinking the American newspaper industry came nipping at my job last fall.
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Yesterday’s news.
The breaking scoop here is that a highly motivated, multitalented creator/communicator (writer, editor, graphic designer, webmaster, technologist, teacher, listener) is seeking new opportunities in a job search targeting the area’s top creative agencies.
A lifelong print journalist who specializes in integrating just the right words with high-impact visuals, I aim to reinvent (or e-invent) myself in the age of SEO, content strategy and inbound marketing.
In fact, inbound marketing is such a key concept among my target employers that I decided to employ the principles of inbound marketing in a campaign to draw their attention to how my track record as a copywriter and content creator positions me to excel at inbound marketing.
Yes, I also enjoy humor. But I am being quite serious here. Rather than rely solely on traditional outbound job-search techniques, it makes sense to use inbound marketing strategies to create well-written, visually appealing content that showcases my skills, experience and services for potential customers (employers).
Some of my favorite work as a writer involved crafting Sunday columns for our local paper. Among a way-too-long list of favorites, I recommend “Pullet surprise scoop on Port City chicken coop,” “Mongoplex: A modest proposal” and “Ozzie Sweet: He made Einstein laugh.”
This link tells the story of how my dad guided me into a career in journalism. This one shares my excitement upon returning to a hometown job after seven years at the Boston Herald. I have not yet written the inside story of my “downsizing,” but I have e-published an Amazon worst-seller (“Downsized: How I How I Got Laid Off After 30 Years in Newspapers and Turned My Funniest Sunday Advice Columns Into a Blockbuster E-book”).
I am also a talented graphic designer (especially Adobe InDesign and Photoshop) who has paginated countless newspaper front pages on deadline is regularly inspired to produce highly creative pieces, several of which have received over 20,000 page views (see samples below).
Since 1999, I have moonlighted as a webmaster on personal projects starting with the Humor Gazette and now Triple Action News (aka JohnBreneman.com), so I know the ABCs of html, CMS and SEO.
I have remained very busy between jobs, writing the first draft of a novel, immersing myself in web projects and even applying for a startup business incubator program (see video).
I urge potential employers to contact me at john.breneman.inc@gmail.
Additional bullet points:
* My resume can be found here.
* One of my YouTube videos has amassed over 400,000 views; another introduces my fake anchorman and makeshift TV news studio.
* Call to action: I urge potential employers to contact me at the email address below.
Thank you for listening. I’d love to continue this conversation.
Reach me at john.breneman.inc@gmail.com.
* * *
Graphic design samples
This item, which I created in Photoshop, has over 23,000 page views according to Google Analytics.
I enjoy creating panels that combine graphic design and Photoshop skill with newswriting ability and an engaging verbal style. For example: “Rolling Stones announce ‘Fossils’ Tour.”
Google Analytics says this Speed Racer item has garnered nearly 39,000 page views.
This is a social media nugget I created for G.Willikers! — the downtown Portsmouth, N.H., children’s store founded by my family in 1978.
Below is an expanded selection of recent writing.