Mark Kemp Email & Phone Number

Greensboro, North Carolina

Assign, edit, and write feature stories for magazine that's served North Carolina since 1933.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Returned to a much smaller CL for a third stint in late 2016. Immediately instituted a local-only coverage policy. After noticing a trend toward coverage of national figures under previous editorship, I talked with local media consumers about what they expect from alt-media outlets in the 2010s. The almost universal response: more depth in coverage of local decision-makers, artists, musicians, chefs, athletes and news. In a social media-driven world, all the necessary information on national or international figures can be found online. CL readers wanted local.Major Accomplishments: Editorial team won five awards at the 2018 national Association of Alternative Newsweekly conference in San Diego.

San Francisco Bay Area

Oversaw print and digital editorial at 65,000-circulation alternative media company; managed staff of nine. Rebuilt editorial department from ground up after paper lost majority of its staff in a company shake-up. Focused on improved storytelling, reporting, presentation of print product.Highlights: Return rates decreased from about 6 percent to less than 2 percent.

San Francisco Bay Area

Oversaw coverage for magazine and website serving acoustic guitar players: supervised team of editors and a designer; planned, assigned, and wrote news, features, and reviews related to new guitars, music-related technology, accessories, and recent recordings; worked with guitar professionals on print and video lessons; conducted on-camera interviews with musicians for video show "Acoustic Guitar Sessions"​; worked with marketing team on special issues, digital initiatives, and positioning editorial content for newsletters, email, and social media; traveled to industry functions including the NAMM Show.Major Accomplishments: promoted from senior editor to top editor within a year; helped quadruple social media engagement in first six months; launched "AG Sessions" series.

Charlotte, North Carolina Area

Returned as EIC for a second stint. Managed editorial staff of seven: managing editor, creative director, web strategist, news editor, arts editor, music editor, listings editor.Major Accomplishments: Spearheaded partnership with Huffington Post for joint coverage of 2012 Democratic National Convention, held in Charlotte; brought staff up to speed by hiring a news editor and web strategist; helped staff identify opportunities to improve quality of writing, reporting, and news judgment; performed analyses and reports to increase readership of both print and digital products; served as company's public face on local TV, radio, as well as leadership and media panels; guest-lectured in schools; continued advances from earlier tenure at CL (see below), including focus on diversity.Notable coverage: Series of advance stories on DNC, as well as daily digital coverage of event; closely followed two other key issues, the anti-LGBT "Amendment One" and Occupy Charlotte.

Charlotte, North Carolina Area

Part of freelance editorial team charged with revamping Rolling Stone’s website: wrote, rewrote and updated content for digital editorial archives. Contributed to several RS special issues including 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, as well as to other media outlets including Spin, Paste, eMusic.com, Creative Loafing, Charlotte Observer, Business North Carolina.Relaunched ’90s music magazine Option as digital-only product: edited/posted all content, utilized social media to market/publicize content and interactive features.Conducted music/media workshops at colleges and media companies including Wake Forest University and Batanga.com; served as temp editor at Business North Carolina.

Charlotte, North Carolina Area

Oversaw editorial at 50,000-circulation Southern alternative weekly. Managed staff of eight: four news reporters, arts editor, music editor, listings editor, operations editor.Major Accomplishments: Instituted immediate changes to bring more diversity to editorial staff and coverage: hired black female music editor, regular Latino and African-American news columnists, and LBGT freelance contributors. Began exploring online opportunities and instituting web initiatives.Notable cover stories: "New Latino South," on region's changing landscape due to record Latino population explosion; "Southern Comfort," on re-migration of African Americans to Charlotte area, also in record numbers.

Charlotte, North Carolina Area

Managed staff of five reporters covering pop music, popular culture, television, film, dining and general entertainment. Helped staff identify opportunities to improve quality of writing, reporting and news judgment. Successfully lobbied for 1A placement of numerous stories.Major Accomplishments: Worked with A&E team on expanding coverage to include more diversity and relevance for a wider and more culturally diverse New South readership.

Greater New York City Area

Contracted by Simon & Schuster/Free Press to write a book — Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race, and New Beginnings in a New South — on Southern music and culture. Traveled across South, from Carolinas to Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, to research and report. Began writing book in 2001, moved back to South to complete it. On the side, did freelance writing for Rolling Stone, TV Guide and other publications. Book publication date: Sept., 2004. Reissued in soft cover by the University of Georgia Press: 2006.

Greater New York City Area

Oversaw editorial content in various departments at music channels MTV and VH1.Major accomplishments: Part of team that launched popular MTV daytime show TRL. Helped develop three VH1 series, The Daily One, The Rankin Files and Rock Show. Helped plan music coverage for Clinton-era VH1 White House lawn event, Concert of the Century. Helped plan music coverage for other events including MTV Video Music Awards and VH1 Divas.Duties: Supervised music direction for MTV on-air hosts Carson Daly and Ananda Lewis. Supervised music direction for VH1 on-air hosts Rebecca Rankin, Madison Michelle, Lynda Lopez. Oversaw music writing staffs in MTV and VH1 news/dayparts production departments. Oversaw editorial for VH1 series Where Are They Now and Before They Were Rock Stars. Appeared on-air at both MTV and VH1 as resident music expert. Wrote scripts for docs including "UltraSound: Rock 'N'​ Roll Feuds."

Greater New York City Area

Oversaw magazine's music coverage. Managed staff of editors and writers responsible for deciding on mix of music news, features, profiles and reviews.Major Accomplishments: Helped bring a new sense of vitality and competitiveness to Rolling Stone's music pages with up-to-date coverage during a transitional period in popular music.Notable first-time cover stories: Sean "Puffy" Combs, Marilyn Manson, Beck, Jakob Dylan.Important music news reports/analyses: Tupac Shakur murder, Jeff Buckley death, rise of digital music, and stories on pop-culture phenomena (Spice Girls, the electronica trend).Other high points: Helped plan and edit Rolling Stone's 30th Anniversary “Women of Rock Issue."Duties: negotiated stories with industry executives; prepared reports and analyses for bi-weekly planning sessions with publisher Jann Wenner and other top editors and designers; edited cover stories and major features; wrote headlines, cover lines; some cover stories, features and reviews; held daily music brainstorming meetings with music editorial staff; delegated editing of secondary stories and reviews.

Greater Los Angeles Area

Oversaw all aspects of the alternative music and culture magazine's editorial content. Planned, assigned and edited literally everything that went into the book: an average of eight features, eight profiles and 200 capsule album reviews. Also wrote cover stories, features and reviews.Major Accomplishments: Attracted name music writers including Holly George-Warren and Chuck Eddy for relatively small but influential magazine. Sought out talented newcomers including Neil Strauss, Lorraine Ali and Jason Fine, each of whom went on to bigger successes at The New York Times, Newsweek and Rolling Stone, respectively.Other highlights: Introduced diligently reported non-music stories to the magazine. Focused on diversity in coverage and writers, recruiting numerous female, gay and ethnic minority writers for stories on then-hot-button issues including HIV-positive musicians and out-gay musicians.Notable stories: Early covers and major features on numerous artists and genres — Sonic Youth, Liz Phair, Moby, Nirvana, Latino and African musicians, jazz, electronic music and much more — that would later be covered extensively in mainstream music publications.Milestones: Promoted from editor to executive editor in 1995. Circulation doubled during my tenure.

Researched science articles; wrote feature stories.

Began as police reporter; promoted to county government and general assignment; wrote weekly pop-music column.

Ba, English, Philosophy

Activities and Societies: Phi Sigma Tau (philosophy society), campus political agitator, member of a punk band.Outstanding Alumnus, 1998

Certificate, Summer Institute In Book And Magazine Publishing