Jason Horn


SUMMARY

Food-obsessed professional lifestyle journalist with experience creating compelling content for both print and web. Diligent and efficient writer and editor with the ability to develop, test, and edit recipes. Knowledgeable in online publishing, including content management systems, SEO, basic web design, blogging, social media, and light photo editing.


EXPERIENCE

Freelance, Los Angeles, Calif., 2014-present
Writer, PR consultant, event organizer and social-media manager

  • Write and edit stories for print and web on a variety of drinks, restaurant/chef, cooking and travel topics
  • Craft pitches, press releases and other collateral for coverage in all types of media
  • Plan, manage and monitor social media outlets (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest) for major brands
  • Organize tastings and other public events.
  • Outlets/clients including Playboy, HGTV.com, Travelchannel.comGarden & Gun, The Daily Beast, Brovo SpiritsFEW Spirits and more

FoodBlogSouth, Birmingham, Ala., 2011 – 2014
Food-blogging conference
Co-founder

  • Planned, organized and marketed the second-largest food-blogging conference in the US
  • Managed venue logistics, speaker selection, ticket sales and sponsor recruitment
  • Managed website and social media
  • Conference subsequently taken over by Southern Foodways Alliance

Liquor.com, San Francisco, Calif., 2010 – 2014
Consumer cocktails-and-spirits website
Senior Editor

  • Edited, copyedited and fact-checked all articles, advertorial and other content
  • Conceived, researched and wrote articles and galleries
  • Planned, scheduled and analyzed performance of posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social-media platforms
  • Formatted and edited recipes
  • Wrote several weekly e-mail newsletters
  • Managed DrinkWire, a community of more than 300 blogger and bartender contributors
  • Developed house stylebook for site
  • Wrote and built content for partner sites, including The Huffington Post and Yahoo! Food

VisitSouth.com, Birmingham, Ala., 2009 – 2010
Travel website covering the Southern US, launched in January 2010
Content Editor

  • Assisted in ground-up planning, design, and architecture of a new website
  • Developed editorial voice for site and edited all site content
  • Recruited and managed team of freelance bloggers in 56 destinations
  • Wrote feature articles on various travel and food topics
  • Served as photo editor, collecting and formatting image library


Cooking Light
, Birmingham, Ala., 2007 – 2009
Nation’s largest cooking magazine—6 million print readers, 1 million monthly unique web users
Editorial Assistant

  • Wrote, edited, and produced stories for print and web
  • Created, wrote, and built 20/20: Superfast Series, biweekly web galleries that generated over 16 million pageviews (18.5 percent of total site traffic) in 2009
  • Helped manage migration of more than 5,000 pieces of web content for a site redesign resulting in 90 percent increased traffic
  • Programmed and dispatched weekly e-mail newsletter
  • Assisted with social media efforts on Facebook and Twitter
  • Monitored and responded to reader questions
  • Handled art and photography invoices and planning
  • Formatted and tracked incoming recipes


Cottage Living,
Birmingham, Ala., 2007
National lifestyle magazine—1 million circulation
Food Editorial Intern

  • Wrote, copyedited, and fact-checked stories for food and other magazine sections
  • Tracked recipes through the testing and editing process


CHOW
, San Francisco, Calif., 2006
Online food magazine—owned by CNET Networks/CBS Interactive
Editorial Intern

  • Reported, wrote, fact-checked, and edited stories
  • Conducted background research

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Birmingham, B-Metro, Chicago Defender, Chicago Journal, Chicago Times, Chi-Town Daily NewsDaily Herald, Healthline.com, LA Weekly, Poultry, Nation’s Restaurant News, Takepart.com, The Year of Alabama Food

EDUCATION

Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism, Evanston, Ill., 2006
Master of Science in Journalism, focus in Magazine Publishing

Tulane University, New Orleans, La., 2001-2005
Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish; Minor in Philosophy

Jefferson State Community College, Birmingham, Ala., 2008-2010
Partially completed Associate of Arts and Sciences program in Culinary Arts


TECHNICAL SKILLS

  • Recipe development (food and cocktails)
  • Basic food/drink styling and photography
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • Dreamweaver
  • Quark Xpress
  • Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
  • WordPress
  • Content management systems
  • SEO research and content creation
  • Basic HTML

LANGUAGES
Fluent in English and Spanish