RESUME
Shelby G Spires
104 Moss Oak Drive
Valdosta, Georgia 31601
(912) 241-1350
spires@surfsouth.com

Career Objective

To use more than 15 years in the publishing business to produce interesting news and magazine articles, photographs, graphics and full scale publications  for consumer marketing products such as a weekly magazine or daily newspaper, and manage the creative flow of a team of journalists, photographers, layout specialists and copy editors to produce a quality product.

Experience

Job Title: Editor and web editor
Organization: Thomson Newspapers
Tenure: January 1999 - Present
Description: The Mailbox Post, (Thomson Newspapers), Valdosta, Ga. -- Publisher Jeff Heard, supervisor. (912) 244-1880. As was my charge by the publisher, I took The Mailbox Post from a weekly with a rural theme to a weekly newsmagazine which has broad appeal to readers of all ages throughout South Georgia. As such, I have redesigned the product taking it to a newer easier to read publication. I instigated several new magazine type features, such as an entertainment page, which highlighted local entertainment and movies and television, and a technology page which deals with themes such as understanding e-mail and how to buy a computer. On a daily basis, I use Adobe PhotoShop and Quark 4.0 to design front and inside pages for The Mailbox Post. Also, I designed, launched and currently edit our website -- www.sgaonline.com/mailboxpost .
I am responsible for a staff of three, as well as managing a group of 20 freelance writers, illustrators, photographers and columnists.
In addition, as military affairs editor for Thomson, I have traveled to Kuwait, Germany and Spain to cover the deployment and operations of U.S. Air Force troops during Operation Southern Watch. I wrote several stories and filed them on deadline from Kuwait, as well as taking numerous 35mm photographs while in country. I have been "on call" to deploy with Air Force rescue personnel during Operation Desert Fox in December 1999, and in 1994 I was on call to fly over Haiti with the 19th Air Refueling Wing.
I have a background in 35mm photography, have taken numerous published front page and inside photographs. As well, I can scan photographs, negatives and slides, and design and manipulated photographic and text layouts with Adobe PhotoShop and Quark Express for the PC and Mac. I have a working knowledge of PCs and Macs as well as their operating systems, and I have designed and built several personal computers.
I have won four Associated Press Newswriting Awards -- two first place awards, a second place award, and a third place award.

Miscellaneous

In April 1999, after two years of research and several people interviewed, Air & Space Smithsonian, paid circulation of 300,000 and distribution of almost 1,000,000, published a 3,000 word article I wrote on the development of Texas Instruments laser guided bomb program.