Catherine Quayle

Brooklyn, NY USA
Contact

Professional Experience

I am an editor, writer and Web strategist with more than 20 years' experience, much of it in Web newsrooms. I have launched or relaunched two successful national news Web sites, and I excel at top editing, copyediting, social media, and improving reader experience. I have edited everything from breaking and daily news to features, blogs, multimedia projects, and nonfiction books. As a writer, I specialize in enterprise and features, with an interest in arts, environment and legal stories. And I have occasionally worn, and enjoyed, the copywriter hat (Web sites, display copy and billboards) for fun clients.

Expertise

Content Editor (online)
12 Years
Editor
20 Years
Writer
20 Years

Specialty

Arts & Humanities
10 Years
Environment & Nature
9 Years
Crime
9 Years

Industries


Advertising, client side
3 Years
Magazine - Trade magazines/publications (B2B)
6 Years
Online/new media
12 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

20 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Today.com (1-2), WNET/PBS (1-2)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Acosta Design (6-10), Colgate (3-5)

Other Work History

FREELANCE (before past 2 years): Reader's Digest, Parade, Random House, HealthForum Magazines, Fitsmi STAFF: * "Need to Know," PBS, WNET Interactive Editor-in-Chief (March 2010 - August 2011) Launched vibrant daily Web site for national TV newsmagazine on PBS, covering a wide range of news and issues, from international affairs to arts, culture and science. Oversaw all staff, content, design, and social media strategy. * CourtTV.com (Exec.) Editor, Managing Editor, Senior Editor (2001 - 2007) Directed the award-winning news site for Court TV. Oversaw its comprehensive relaunch and managed a fantastic small newsroom. Assigned reporters to cover high-profile legal stories, directed major special projects, and oversaw content partnerships. * Feature Writer/Associate Editor, magazines, American Hospital Publishing * Managing Editor, Associate Editor, magazines, Water Environment Federation * Editorial Assistant, Environment magazine

Technical Skills

Photography, video editing (Final Cut) and photo editing (Photoshop)

Foreign Language Skills

French proficient

Computer Skills

All basic Mac and Windows programs, many Web publishing apps, including Wordpress, Teamsite, Omniture, editor-level HTML

Equipment

MacBook Pro, digital camera, audio recorder

References

Available upon request

Awards

Personal awards: Vermont Studio Center Residency, 2011 Columbia University Writing Fellowships, 1998-99 Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism, Second Place, 1998 Excel Gold Award, Magazine Feature Article, SNAP, 1998 Excel Silver Award, Magazine Feature Article, 1997 Lannan Literary Fellowship, 1990 CourtTV.com awards during my tenure as editor: Edward R. Murrow Award for Best National (TV) News Web Site Front Page Award, 2005 Online Journalism Award finalist, 2005 National Press Club Award, 2005 EPpy Award, 2004

Showcase

Writing

Oh, and Happy Evacuation Day
(PBS.org/Need to Know 11/25/2010)
A holiday once celebrated as the day the British beat their retreat from New York, leaving the new nation to get down to the business of becoming its bratty self.
Countdown to the Feathered Four
(PBS.org/Need to Know 4/4/2011)
March Madness may be drawing to its close, but elsewhere, over in a specialized corner of the Internet, another tournament is quietly heating up. Pssst. Over here. It's about birds, OK?
Television to die for
(PBS.org/Need to Know 9/13/2010)
What do the fictional Shakespeare festival in "Slings & Arrows" and PBS have in common? "The problem is our audience is literally dying. The average age is 55 years old. If we don't reach the youth market, we're finished!"
Journey to Terre Haute: Execution of an American Terrorist
(Court TV 6/11/2001)
Before September 11, the Oklahoma City bombing loomed large in the American pysche as the worst terror attack on American soil. This is a series of essays (a pre-blog blog, if you will) written during an RV trip to cover the execution of terrorist Timothy McVeigh for Courttv.com.
Happy Battle of Brooklyn Day!
(PBS.org/Need to Know 8/27/2010)
Citizens of Manhattan watched, waited and gradually flipped out.
Sex in the mail: Political party wants to share the love, but post office won't put out
(Court TV 10/24/2007)
Anyone receiving a campaign flyer from Canada's Sex Party would have noticed, alongside details of the party's platform, an illustration of two naked torsos intimately entwined. Had anyone received it, that is.
Our Martha Graham century
(PBS.org/Need to Know 5/11/2011)
Martha Graham was born on this day in 1894. Her long life spanned most of the 20th century, and she was one of its finest interpreters.
Walking through walls with Mark Rylance
(PBS.org/Need to Know 6/13/2011)
In "Jerusalem," Rylance plays a hard-partying, yarn-spinning squatter during the last days of -- well, of something -- who has lived for decades in an Airstream in rural England, serving as a kind of debauched Peter Pan to a rowdy gang of lost teenagers.
In defense of the evil, awful Happy Meal toy
(PBS.org/Need to Know 10/14/2010)
Sure, they lure "unsuspecting little children" into the supercaloric underworld. But they're really cute.
Excuse me, I'm having a Macbeth moment
(PBS.org/Need to Know 7/13/2011)
What might Macbeth's sleepless nights be like, tormented by fears and prophecies? An interactive theater experience will help us find out, though it seems we already know. (A feature-length essay about "Sleep No More," Macbeth, the poor sleeping patterns of tyrants, and our scorpion-filled minds.)
World's most famous hawk loses another mate
(Today.com 2/28/2012)
Manhattan birdwatchers are mourning the death of the most recent mate of Pale Male, an urban hawk whose love life has been chronicled with the kind of intensity usually reserved for A-list celebrities.

Editing, Web Strategy

CourtTV.com Portfolio
(Court TV 12/31/2007)
A sampling of features, news, and multimedia projects from the erstwhile Court TV Web site.