Gretchen Van Benthuysen Email & Phone Number

Colts Neck, Nj

Create and manage web content, SEO, write press releases, freelance for newspapers and websites

Red Bank

Write feature articles, business profiles and gardening pieces for the weekly newspaper that circulates in the northeast area of Monmouth County, NJ.

New York City

Entertainment features, including "Will new tattooed, drug addicted TV version of Sherlock Holmes turn off die-hard fans?" and "'Hunger Games' has America's kids hooked on archery" (see links to stories below).

Colts Neck, Nj

For theaters, small businesses and nonprofits to thrive they must become sources of information like newspapers used to be: become your own publicist, control the message. If you want to land on the first page of Google post new content regularly -- text, images, video -- optimized to be magnets for Google's bots. Build an online community that wants to hear from you often, NOT just when you want to sell them something.

Neptune, Nj

Producing content and photos for NJ Press Media, including theater and entertainment features, garden column, book reviews, business stories, and news stories.

Neptune, Nj

Web producer, copy and content editor for the Friday and Sunday Entertainment editions of Asbury Park Press, Daily Record and Courier News/Home News Tribune. Posted stories, updates, features, breaking news, photo galleries and video for the Entertainment websites of all three products from staff and wire services.-- Increased web traffic more than 600 percent year over year in 2009. -- More than doubled traffic to APP.com entertainment pages by increasing web updates four-fold in less than 1 year. -- Wrote feature stories, trend pieces, book reviews and profiles.

Neptune, Nj

Collaboratively designed, launched and managed the website JerseyShore.MomsLikeMe.com. Managed staff bloggers and public contributors, planned and supervised outreach events throughout central New Jersey. Used various content management systems, creating, editing and managing content including comments, forums, blogs, photos and videos.-- Elevated JerseyShore.MomsLikeMe.com from nearly last place in web traffic to top 6 of more than 50 Gannett sites by using keywords, search engine optimization, social networking, online contests and marketing events. Site grew to more than 3,000 registered users and averaged more than 400 unique visitors monthly.

New York City

Produced an award-winning 8- to 10-page weekly section for and by teenagers. In partnership with Communications High School in Wall, NJ. Mentored 10 to 12 students each year teaching them reporting, editing and design skills with the goal of publishing their stories, photos and art work.-- Managed a team of editors, reporters and photographers who launched a Day in the Life of a High School outreach project. Visited nearly 40 high schools and worked with student journalists to identify, develop, report and write stories that day that for publication as a stand-alone supplement a week later in the Asbury Park Press.

Lakewood, Nj

Generate features, profiles, news releases and press releases for Gail Towns, GCU’s Director of Marketing and Communications.

Neptune, Nj

Wrote reviews, features, trend pieces and personality profiles of local, regional and Broadway performers and productions. -- Co-wrote a computer-assisted investigative cover story about the impact both the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities -- which gave $58 million in total grants to NJ from 1984 and 1994 -- would drastically change if the Republicans in the US Senate shut down both organizations as they were threatening to do. It won a second place in the 1996 New Jersey Press Association's annual awards.

Nyc

Reviews, features of New Jersey's theaters for the entertainment Bible in the 1990s.At the same time, I contributed reviews and interviews to Variety, Backstage and The Drama League publications.

Neptune, Nj

Managed 10 full-time staffers and eight freelancers, expanding coverage from a local to state-wide presence while collaborating to help increase the Asbury Park Press Sunday circulation from 150,000 to more than 200,000. Assigned, edited, planned and scheduled daily and Sunday coverage of all fine and performing arts evens in Monmouth and Ocean counties, plus significant events in other parts of the state.

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Communications, Minor Fine Arts

Activities and Societies: Rider Theatre, Alpha Psi Omega, Alpha Epsilon Zeta, Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges, Press Day.

Master Of Arts In Liberal Studies, How The Arts, Politics And The Economy Interact To Create Today'S American Society.