Megan Braden-Perry

New Orleans, LA USA
Website: https://meganbradenperry.contently.com/
Contact

Professional Experience

Freelancer from New Orleans who's covered culture, food, drink, fashion, beauty, shopping, crime, education, music and breaking news for local and national outlets. Mom to a toddler. Excellent news judgment and knowledge of what readers want. Style guides are my bedtime stories.

Expertise

Reporter
10 Years
Copy Editor
10 Years
Fact-Checker
10 Years

Specialty

Family, Children & Teenagers
10 Years
Food
10 Years
Lifestyle
10 Years

Industries


Magazine - Large Consumer/National magazines
10 Years
Online/new media
10 Years
Newspaper - National
10 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

10 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Gambit Weekly (10+), NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune (10+), Essence Magazine (1-2), New York Daily News (3-5), Jezebel (1-2), Today Show (1-2), New Orleans Advocate (3-5), ApartmentTherapy (3-5), Parents Magazine (3-5)

Other Work History

Contributing writer at Gambit Weekly from 2011-2012 News reporter at NOLA.COM | The Times-Picayune from 2012-2013 Staff writer, copy editor and fact-checker from 2013-2014 at Gambit Weekly News and copy editor at Nexstar Digital 2019-2020

Technical Skills

Photo editing with Adobe Photoshop and GIMP, desktop publishing with Adobe InDesign and InCopy, Scribus. Basic video editing.

Computer Skills

Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite

Equipment

Laptop, smartphone

References

Available upon request

Awards

First place headline (Finger Tips: Nailing a Perfect 10) 2013 Press Club of New Orleans awards, Third Place feature-affiliated blog (Public Transit Tuesdays) 2013 Press Club of New Orleans awards

Showcase

Fashion and Beauty

Runway-inspired global men's fashion.
Advice from manicurists on keeping nails trendy and healthy.
Advice from hairstylists on fighting humidity for different hair types.

Hard News

A man is arrested for selling fake cocaine.
Lingerie-clad men robbed a man in a New Orleans area motel.
Neighbors alleged that a recent murder stemmed from a turf war which followed the demolition of the area's only housing project and the erection of mixed-income housing on the same land soon after.
Breaking coverage of the road rage homicide of New Orleans Saints football player Will Smith.
Continuing coverage of the road rage homicide of New Orleans Saints football player Will Smith.
Coverage of Alton Sterling shooting in Baton Rouge.
Coverage of Alton Sterling's funeral in Baton Rouge.
Coverage of shooting death of three Baton Rouge cops.
Coverage of protests following the shooting of Alton Sterling.
Coverage of police-involved shootings, such as Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.
An update on public transportation in and around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, the start of gentrification and the demolition of most public housing in the area. This was a cover story.
Coverage of the first total artificial heart implanted in the Gulf South region, the SynCardia, and the family it helped.
A combination crime report and obituary of a woman killed on Mardi Gras night.

Education

Coverage of the 25th annual New Orleans spelling bee.
A research-heavy article about language immersion schools in New Orleans.

Shopping

Comparison of area dollar stores, both chains and small businesses.
Research- and consumer-driven comparison of babywearing devices including slings, wraps and backpacks.

New Media

An example of aggregation, a new media technique, this story let our readers see a popular story from our broadcast partners about a jug of urine being thrown at a Carnival parade.
An example of a post with an eternal shelf life, this simple post about chain restaurants opening in New Orleans still receives frequent interaction.
This simple post about a dancing cop went viral, getting 13,000 likes on Facebook and making Gambit history as the most visited page since the publication's website was created.

Travelogues

I explore my city by bus -- interviewing, photographing, researching and eating -- and write a travelogue at the end of the day. In this particular installment, I chronicle blight, corruption, the oil bust, housing and despondence.
I explore my city by bus -- interviewing, photographing, researching and eating -- and write a travelogue at the end of the day. In this particular installment, a store owner and customer suspect gentrification. I find evidence of that throughout my journey.
I explore my city by bus -- interviewing, photographing, researching and eating -- and write a travelogue at the end of the day. In this particular installment, I meet characters at a diner, explore family history and talk gentrification with a family.

Commentary

Gambit staffers answered the ofttimes loaded New Orleans question, "Are you from here?"
For our series on what nativity means in New Orleans, I shared my story of growing up there when my neighborhood was crime-ridden and when people weren't moving there constantly and writing about it for national publications.
A personal essay about Mardi Gras from someone born and raised in New Orleans.

Entertainment

King Cake Baby shares his thoughts on Mardi Gras and Carnival customs.
Interview with actor and stand-up comedian David Koechner. He discusses his body of work, his background, family life, the industry and upcoming projects.

Food

Profiles of three students from Cafe Reconcile, a service-learning program in New Orleans where at-risk kids learn about the restaurant industry, life skills and cooking.
The research-heavy story of Mamita's Hot Tamales, a family-run tamale company making tamales in a fashion that New Orleans residents believed was a casualty of Hurricane Katrina. Through research, I learned that for decades someone was wrongly credited with creating the New Orleans-style tamale.
A first-person narrative of my search for one of my favorite New Orleans childhood treats, the hucklebuck. This story got several hits and 1.1 thousand likes on Facebook.
Full coverage of the 2013 ProStart cooking competition for Louisiana culinary students.
An interview with the proprietor of one of New Orleans' most popular and longstanding taquerias. He shares little known facts about his best dishes and secret menu items.
Common ingredient substitutes are tested in various recipes and there are tips on how to help kids not be such picky eaters.