Don Armstrong

Alexandria, LA USA
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Professional Experience

Attention to detail, impeccable grammar, strong narrative sense—that’s what you get with me. A production editor recently wrote, “You are one eagle-eyed dude.” I have worked for publications like Time and Rolling Stone and with many of the best writers in the business. I can make almost any story shine.

Expertise

Copy Editor
30 Years
Editor
33 Years
Writer
33 Years

Specialty

Lifestyle
30 Years
Politics
32 Years
Science
25 Years

Industries


Magazine - Large Consumer/National magazines
30 Years
Online/new media
15 Years
Book Publishing Consumer
10 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

33 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Al Jazeera America (10+), Time Inc. (10+), Vanity Fair (10+), Greenleaf Book Group (3-5), Metropolis magazine (3-5)

Other Work History

Currently editing book on adoption. Previously features editor, Boston magazine; senior editor, The Sporting News; content editor, NY Daily News; associate editor, Entertainment Weekly; copy editor, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Time, Essence, Village Voice.

Computer Skills

MS Word, InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop, Excel

Awards

Edited bronze award–winning feature (City & Regional Mag Assn) by Andre Dubus III for Boston magazine. Part of staff at Entertainment Weekly that won National Magazine Award for overall excellence, million+ circulation.

Showcase

General

This is from a feature story I edited by Luciana Chavez. It was the first time baseball superstar Vladimir Guerrero allowed a writer to visit him at home in the Dominican Republic, and she rose to the occasion. I think I played a role in that.
This is something I created wholly on my own. It is included to demonstrate the breadth of my skills. I used an iPhone camera, desktop Macintosh, MS Word, Photoshop, InDesign and a Webster's dictionary.
This is from a feature I edited by National Book Award finalist Andre Dubus III. It was difficult persuading him to write for a local magazine, but the piece won an award from the City and Regional Magazine Association and he soon contributed a second.
Stephen King and his agent were reluctant to sell first -reprint rights to his memoir of a Red Sox season to a Boston magazine; they no doubt hoped for someplace bigger. But I stayed after them and when it was all through King praised my excerpting.
I have written on sports, politics, real estate, film and, most often lately, country music.
These are my corrections for a chapter of a book about the great discoveries, published by Time. I am the final set of eyes on most of Time's book and my corrections typically cover syntax, grammar, factual accuracy, design consistency, technical interpretation and other issues.