About

 BETTY L. MARTIN 

bet_martin77024@yahoo.com

 ONLINE, NEWSPAPER, MAGAZINE, DOCUMENTARY WRITER 

Job satisfaction is taking a story idea through planning and research to a dynamic, high-impact newspaper and magazine article, or a documentary script for online, print or mixed media. Strong professional skills, visual writing style and ethical work habits have been developed during three decades as a newspaper reporter/editor, magazine article writer, coordinator of museum-quality text and documentary scripts and public relations specialist.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 

Houston Chronicle, Houston, TX             1999-2009

Editor, Tryco Administration

Reporter

• First as a Tryco contract editor and then for the last nine years as a fulltime staff reporter for the Houston Chronicle, I worked for several online and weekly print Neighborhood Newspapers, covering  infrastructure and community crime-deterrent issues, clubs, local organizations, personality profiles and special events for subscription print and online readers.
• In 2007, I won the Houston Chronicle’s highest recognition for annual achievement, the Jesse Award, for a story about local reaction to the Enron scandal and subsequent indictments.
• I was among the first reporters selected to report for the Houston Chronicle’s online newspaper, chron.com, which was successfully piloted by the Neighborhood News division’s Katy section.

Text/Research Coordinator, Southwest Museum Services, Houston, TX           1994-1999

• Gathered film, photographs, documents, musical recordings, Internet materials and original artifacts to be reprinted, re-recorded or replicated for museums throughout the Southwest region of the United States. Wrote museum text, label copy and scripts for audiovisual, documentary-style presentations and interactive exhibits.
• Wrote script for push-button video welcome, voiced by 41st President George H. W. Bush, for the Museum of the Pacific War extension at the Admiral Charles Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg.

 

Editor, Houston Community Newspapers                                                                        1990-1993

• Wrote and edited news and feature stories for weekly newspapers covering special events, schools, clubs, organizations, businesses and crime-deterrent efforts in Southwest Houston and Katy editions.  Responsible for supervision of two reporters and one photographer.
•  Designed 14-28 individual page layouts for two weekly community newspapers.

Reporter, The Orange Leader, Orange, TX     1987-1989

• Covered politics, education, entertainment, crime, business, personality profiles and features for daily Gulf Coast newspaper.
• Won Charles E. Green Award from the Headliners Foundation of Texas and the Governor’s Commendation for Outstanding Achievement in Journalistic Excellence in 1988 for best sports feature article in a midsize Texas newspaper market.

 Editor/Reporter, The Cleveland Advocate, Cleveland, TX              1985-1987  

• Designed, wrote and edited complete editorial product, including researching and writing news and feature stories; photographing, developing and printing photos and composing pages for weekly newspaper.
• When editor left in 1986, I was promoted to the position while continuing to serve as reporter, photographer and page compositor.

 Textbook editor, American Association for State and Local History, Nashville, TN                             1983-1985

• At nonprofit AASLH’s History News Magazine, wrote articles and six-page roundup of events of interest to history professionals and preservationists .  Promoted to textbook editor, seeing projects through from rough draft to blueline corrections phase to printing and distribution from the contract printer to sales campaigns.
• Compiled, wrote and edited directory, “Historical Associations and Organizations in North America and Canada” in 1985

 Journalist, U.S. Navy                          1974-1982

• Took extensive photojournalism courses at the Department of Defense Information School in Indiana before being assigned to U.S. Navy bases and public affairs staff in Yokosuka, Japan, and Pearl Harbor, HI, where I wrote articles for base newspapers and contributed to Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper and the U.S. Navy’s All Hands Magazine.
• Was editor of the weekly Panorama newspaper for the military and civilian readership at the Navy base in Naples, Italy.
• Won U.S. Navy-wide recognition in journalism, the Chief of Naval Information Award, Features Category, 1976