Justin J
Writer #21041
Joined 5/22/2017
4 Star Rating
602 Projects
0 Endorsements
0 Elite Skills
Justin is leaving The New York Observer this summer after spending two years reporting hard news and evergreen stories about art, music, media, innovation and tech. In addition to Observer, he occasionally reports for Vice, Complex, Univision, and more.

Successfully engaging an audience with your content requires a knowledge word economy, tight copy, and understanding how pull quotes/images/video can work with a piece of content to increase engagement time and produce properly serve the brand of an outlet's voice. Between earning his Masters in journalism and working in the thankless world of publishing, Justin honed these skills to produce and edit clean, effective copy time and again.

Justin has written a few artist biographies and restaurant bios for press material, but is looking forward to taking on more copywriting/copyediting assignments that leverage his skills as a writer in new spaces. Justin's five years working as a teacher for Apple has only further fortified him with the language of retail, be it in the tech space or elsewhere. Open to copy opportunities for both retail and B2B clients.
Press Release
Publishing
Article

Specialties

Reporting, Writing, Copyediting, Copywriting, Interviews, Transcriptions, SEO Optimization, CMS Optimization, Wordpress, Analytics (Google, Parsley, Chartbeat), Social Tools (Buffer), Manual Photography

Interests

Art, Music, Film, Television, Media, Food, Nonprofits, Retail, B2B

Education

Emerson College

Justin earned his BFA with a triple major in Writing, Literature and Publishing from Emerson College. His studies focused on the composition of fiction and the inner workings of the book publishing industry.

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

Justin graduated from CUNY's J School with his Masters in December 2015, choosing to concentrate on Cultural reporting. He submitted his thesis on the questionable implementation of media branding tactics in the modern music festival economy.

Publishing

300 Projects Completed

Justin has written countless articles on the intersection of Art, Media and Tech for outlets like The New York Observer, Vice, Complex Mag and others.

Article

300 Projects Completed

Justin infuses all of his reporting— from interviews to opinion-centered editorial— with journalistic verification processes for ethical sourcing and structural elements borrowed from the classic, hard news, "inverted pyramid" story form. Strong reporting is the backbone of all editorial, even stories that veer into presenting a controversial or contrarian stance. With solid facts used as a framing device, even the more "out there" theses will be read and consumed with serious consideration.

Press Release

2 Projects Completed

Justin has written bios and press releases for two bands and one restaurant concept. He approaches press releases much in the same way that he approaches reporting—probing by asking pointed questions, isolating the quotes that cause a reader pause, and structuring the copy with just enough information to leave the audience wanting to know more.

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