RICHARD GIBSON

Freelance Writer and Editor

Contact: 

writer@richardgibson.org

Personal statement

Freelance writer, with articles published in UK and Irish newspapers, magazines, partworks and business-to-business publications.


Having provided copy for a number of computer magazine tutorials and children’s illustrated publications, my writing style is designed to make even complex topics engaging, easily understood and free of jargon. 


I also have more than 20 years’ experience as a professional newspaper sub and production editor, and I guarantee that all copy is submitted well in advance of deadlines – factually and legally accurate, clear, grammatically correct, and free of typos, literals and spelling errors.


Key Skills

•    Experienced at writing news stories and features, long and short

•    Seasoned interviewer, adept at putting subjects at ease

•    Skilled in writing advertising copy

•    Able to project-manage publications, papers and reports through the entire

        production process, from commissioning to print

•    Proficient copy editor and proofreader

•    Quick and thorough, and able to deliver copy on time

•    Proficient in QuarkXpress, CopyDesk, InDesign and InCopy


Employment History 

(2000 – Present)

Features writer: 

Regular features for St James’s House Publishers

‘Let There Be Light – Efficiently’ – article for Guardian Technology section 

‘Church of an Artistic Mind’ – article for the Irish Times newspaper

'Woody Harrelson: The Cowboy Way' – feature for Film & TV Week magazine 

Robotics at Work, PC Action Games and PC Success – De Agostini partwork series 

’Allo! ’Allo!’ – GE Fabbri partwork series 

‘Create a Newsletter in Word’; ‘Draw Animations in Powerpoint’; ‘Word

Tips and Tricks’; ‘Email Tips and Tricks’ – tutorials for PC Advisor magazine 

News and features for the Bray People newspaper, Ireland

Arts listings for Livewire and Hot Air magazines


Copywriter:

Daily Telegraph Advertising and Marketing Departments

St James’s House Publishers


Fiction and drama:

‘Gentlemen and Players’ – radio play for RTÉ Radio, Ireland

‘Mamba! Mamba!’ and ‘Sausages in Leipzig’ – short stories: for 

Sunday Miscellany –  RTÉ Radio

‘Estelle’s Pink Shoes: The Passions of Hector Berlioz’ – staged reading

for Jill Freud and Company

'An Afternoon at the Theatre' and 'Summer Blooms' – short stories for 

Woman's Own magazine


Freelance sub-editor:

The Week Junior

Science & Nature

St James’s House Publishers

Financial Times Special Reports, World 

Guardian Review, G2, Family

Observer Review

Sunday Times Regional Desk, Business 

The Times newspaper

The Irish Times newspaper

The Times Magazine

The Banker magazine

Esquire magazine

Classic FM Magazine 

BBC Music Magazine

Dentistry Magazine

TV Times

Auto Express


Responsibilities: 

•    Cutting and fitting copy

•    Editing copy for sense, typos and literals

•    Checking facts and legal issues 

•    Uploading pages to the web


Freelance Production editor:

MacUser magazine 


Responsibilities: 

•    Commissioning copy and artwork

•    Flat-planning, chasing and subbing copy, managing an editorial team 

       and seeing pages through to print


(1997–2000) 

Writer and editor at M-Press Publishing (producing partworks, 

magazines and illustrated books, 

Wrote several volumes of the mini-book series, In Classical Mood, and 

edited a number of sections of the partwork, Secrets of the Universe


Responsibilities: 

•    Commissioning copy and artwork

•    Flat-planning

•    Chasing and subbing copy

•    Managing an editorial team

•    Seeing pages through to print 


(1994–1997) 

Joined the editorial team that developed Minx magazine for EMAP,

contributing ideas and putting together dummy features. Worked on several issues

following the launch.

Acted as chief sub at Slimmer magazine for six months’ sabbatical cover.

Freelance production editor on The VAR and Network Reseller (IT industry 

magazines), for Dennis Publishing


Responsibilities: 

•    Commissioning copy and artwork

•    Flat-planning

•    Chasing and subbing copy

•    Managing an editorial team

•    Seeing pages through to print 


Education

BA in English and Drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama/ Westfield College

Diploma in journalism at Westminster College, London

CELTA Certificate (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) – International House, London