CAREER OVERVIEW
- Books, films and corporate PR and "damage control" at the highest levels.
- Over two decades of writing for the premier publications in their respective categories, including Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and The Wall Street Journal.
- Over a decade of collegiate teaching experience, including three years at the prestigious Indiana University-Bloomington School of Journalism.
- Increasingly responsible staff positions in editing/publication management.
RECENT CAREER IN DETAIL
Freelance journalist, Nov. 1981—Present. Elite contract publicist and image consultant with several "best in show" accolades in industry competitions for annual reports and other major corporate documents. Particularly strong in media placement and in mentoring on unique brand identity and associated talking points. Have written over 400 cover stories, feature articles, interviews, essays and works of satire (on business, health, sports, politics, music, social policy and entertainment) for publications including
Harper’s, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Sports Illustrated, Good Housekeeping, Skeptic, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Men’s Health, Publishers Weekly, Playboy and others. [Sampling of actual magazine covers shown here.] For much of the mid-90s I was the "designated pinch-hitter" columnist for
The Wall Street Journal’s opinion/leisure & arts pages, supplying some four dozen columns.
Visiting Professor/Global Studies/Media, Lehigh University
Spring 2012-May 2013. Taught intensive senior-level seminar that examined global truths and challenges through the prism of their presentation and handling in print, broadcast and social media.
Writer-in-Residence, Muhlenberg College, Fall 2002—Spring 2005. Taught courses in first-person nonfiction and magazine writing/editing at this respected four-year college.
Executive Editor, Men’s Health Books, June 2000—Oct. 2001. Managing a staff of editors, writers and researchers, I oversaw all activity—trade books, mail-order, and special-sales channels—for this branded imprint of the nation’s largest privately owned publishing company.
Visiting Professor/Riley Chair in Magazine Journalism, IU-Bloomington, Fall 1996—June 2000. Taught feature/investigative reporting and editing. Contributed to curriculum development, mentored grad students, served as faculty advisor to editors of the school magazine. To my knowledge, I was the only non-tenured faculty member in any discipline nominated as Teacher of the Year during my time at IU.
Publisher, Editor-in-Chief of American Legion Magazine, Dec. 1994—Dec. 1997. As the in-house publication of the well-known veterans-service organization, Legion offered the same fare as any major monthly, covering important events and trends in business, government, sports, healthcare and other issues of interest to a broad audience. During my stewardship the magazine set advertising records that remain in place, while also collecting more than a dozen major editorial awards.
Books and other major projects. My controversial exposé on the self-help movement,
SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, received a significant media reception in June 2005. Included among my hundreds of appearances on radio and television were prime-time segments on CNN, FOX, ABC and MSNBC. was widely (and, for the most part, glowingly) reviewed in
The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and elsewhere; excerpts and related articles ran in leading publications worldwide, including a two-part cover story in the London Times
The paperback was published in September 2006. In 2010, working closely with ABC weekend anchor Dan Harris and senior producer Miguel Sancho, I helped develop an hour-long prime-time special on the dangers of self-help. It ran on June 29, 2010, and I was featured extensively "on-cam."
My 1987 true-crime on the murder of Texas politician Price Daniel Jr.,
Deadly Blessing (Morrow, hardcover; St. Martin’s, softback, 1988) became a featured book-club selection.
Deadly Blessing was adapted for television by Warner Bros. and debuted on ABC in January 1992 as
Bed of Lies. I served as a script consultant on the project.
Trade critics hailed my first book,
The Newest Profession (William Morrow, 1985), as one of the year’s top sales & marketing titles.
