Marcia Francis

Strategic web-content development and management for jea.com, main Brand writer for JEA including the annual report, CEO letters for internal and external audiences, presentations, position papers, communications consultant to internal clients and back-up media liaison.

Web-content and development for www.educationcentral.org (now called www.duvalschools.org) Restructured site to allow better information flow then, later, assisted outside company with redesign and content migration of entire site (www.duvalschools.org has been redesigned; the current look and feel is not representative of my work). Put together a team from both the communications side and the technology side to implement design and write the first e-newsletter for employees. At that time, DCPS had only recently made email available to all employees. Due to budget constraints, there were very limited means available to communicate with our stakeholders. I worked with the City of Jacksonville to gain access to free publicity for the school district and wrote and edited articles and cover stories for the city’s public information magazine.

Web-content manager, feature writer for city’s Neighborhood magazine and co-creator, producer, writer and host for city’s award-winning public service television program, Jax to the Max. Public Information lead on the award-winning redesign of the city’s Web site, www.coj.net. (At present, the site maintains the same basic architecture but many of the design elements have been altered.)

Coordinate news and entertainment promotion and public service campaigns, managed annual budget and media buys and handled talent appearances for promotional events. I was responsible for writing copy and ads, supervising graphic design and scheduling of promotional spots. I worked with the news director to establish news identity with new custom video graphic and music "package" for all newscasts. I also collaborated with post-production facilities in Dallas, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee to produce both the graphics and music packages. I assisted our sales department by creating sales presentations and other.

As producer, I was part of the newsroom management team and my duties included development, preparation and execution of weekday 6 p.m. newscast. Producers met twice a day to select stories and track their progress, making editorial calls and determining news placement. Each producer was responsible for content in their show. I worked with reporters, edited and approved copy prior to story editing/production, determined story length and placement within the show and made camera shot selections for the newscast.

Researched stories, interviewed story subjects and experts, edited news stories. Daily contact with government, school and university officials, agencies and the general public to develop news leads/stories.

I worked with production companies as an independent contractor on projects for various clients. One of my main clients, Garrison Ridge Productions, hired me for continuing projects for the United Transportation Union (UTU), an international union representing rail, airline and bus employees. This work took me to various parts of the country to shoot interviews on location. I also cast actors for training video scenarios, edited down live workshops to short training videos and wrote scripts for longer form videos for conferences. One such project for client CSX Transportation called "Trusted to Move America" involved research and video procurement from various customers to produce a video for their yearly annual meeting.

Creative services director; WJTC-TV in Pensacola, Florida
Director, Local Access Cable TV in Pensacola, Florida
Promotion assistant manager, WPMI-TV in Pensacola, Florida
Weekend news producer, WEAR-TV in Pensacola, Florida
Promotions assistant; WSRE-TV in Pensacola, Florida
Studio floor crew and camera operator; WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama

Write and work closely with designers to create external communication pieces for consumer, physician and key stakeholder audiences. I also am the editor of the hospital's physician-to-physician journal, Innovations. I hire and supervise freelance writers for this publication, as well.

After working in the television broadcast industry for 20 years, I can produce a 10-second spot, a two- minute news story, a 12- minute training video or presentation, a 30- minute documentary or a two-hour live talent show (I really did this once- it was a fundraiser for a local teen help line for suicide prevention- it was crazy and fun and we raised quite a bit of money). Producing is about prioritization, appropriateness and quality of content, organization of resources, meeting timelines and deadlines and successfully completing a project on-time, every time.

Usually, less is more on the web. (Although in this case, I'm not sticking to the "50 percent fewer words" rule.) I have translated my print and video writing and producing skills to new media. I am a student of the social media movement/explosion. I’ve used Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Flash to create web content. While not a programming expert, I understand the potential of the Web.

Though I am not a "project manager," I am capable of leading and working within teams to make progress, meet deadlines and, ultimately, achieve goals. I enjoy the collaborative creative process. I am a win-win kind of person who believes we all win when we meet our project goals and want to work together again.

Over the years, I've held many job titles. Whatever the title, the essence of what I do has remained the same. I tell stories.

I use words and images to connect people to ideas.

If you want to tell a story, I can help.

I will craft your message for the appropriate media be it video, print, radio or the evolving world of the Internet and social media.

And if you don't know what to say, or how to tell your story, I can help you with that, too.

Mac and PC-friendly, Word, PowerPoint, FrontPage, Photoshop (CS3- some Flash), Fireworks, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Non-linear video editing (Stratosphere and Media 100) and some lesser softwares when necessary including Paint, Pagemaker and Publisher. Where there's a will and some kind of technology/software, there's a way.