Rayna Katz Email & Phone Number

New York, Ny, Us

Greater New York City Area

I've used my network of hotel, restaurant and travel industry contacts--built over years of working at industry publications--to continue landing assignments as a freelance writer. My stories perform well on social media, some have received over 1,000 impressions. Also during this time, a (temp) position was created for me at Skift's branded content studio after I contributed just one report to the organization.A highlight of my freelancing was when I wrote, and self-edited, 10 stories about various restaurants and food businesses in NYC. Before 2017, I worked on staff at publications and I'm looking to return to a staff role for either an online and/or print publication. I'm a meticulous editor, a strong collaborator, a creative writer and I've been told it's easy to work with me.

New York City Metropolitan Area

•Fact-check existing listings and revise accordingly•Identify and delete irrelevant entries•Find new attractions, stores, restaurants etc., while staying as close as possible to the totals of each offering type (such as dining, museums, etc.) and the total listings•Use company CMS to manage each entry•Visit roughly one-third of the places included, for quality-control purposes. This entails researching contacts, outreach, follow up and keeping up with all of it for over 90 places.

Greater New York City Area

*Procured, and interviewed, 10 sources for a 5,000-word report I wrote on luxury at meetings, including the offering of unique dining experiences for groups at restaurants. Also conducted all research and did most of the writing for a report on UX design -- sponsored by The Venetian Las Vegas -- and created a slide deck on how hotels can book more meetings.

Greater New York City Area

(POSITION ENDED BY A LAYOFF)Managed all Location Scout stories, which entailed assigning, coaching, top editing, copyediting, uploading into a CMS, and invoicing for up to 16 stories and slideshows monthly from freelancers and junior staff editors.Tracked news of chefs and restaurants for features and destination coverageFound, reported and wrote three stories weekly, including slideshows, on events and industry news.Proofread and edited magazine pages using InCopy.Posted content to Instagram and Twitter from events. Worked closely with photo, art and marketing departments to create stories and venue listings. Covered industry events while serving as brand ambassador.

Greater New York City Area

Nominated for a Folio Eddie award, in “Best Single Article” category, for a feature (below) on hotel development.Oversaw hotel industry coverage, which entailed interviewing analysts and composing full-length magazine features.Sourced, reported and wrote up to seven stories daily on commercial real estate deals, personalities and trends in New York City.Posted each story to the web using a WordPress-based CMS.Managed and edited one writer’s daily story aggregation efforts. Worked closely with writers in other regions nationally to suggest stories.Created a daily email update for subscribers with the four or five leading articles from the GlobeSt.com New York City page and provided commentary on those stories.Covered and photographed up to four briefings each quarter from the industry’s leading firms on the state of the market.Attended and reported on additional events, including networking receptions, lectures, internally sponsored conferences and national industry conventions.Interacted regularly—and developed relationships—with leading industry executives, publicists and other sources for current and future story development.Researched and wrote several 2,000 word features annually for Real Estate Forum on NYC market trends or hotel industry issues.Proofread extensively and regularly corrected copy.Edited photos on a daily basis.

New York City Metropolitan Area

I wrote pieces about Spamalot (with Clay Aiken) and Paramount for this publication.

New York, New York

Conceived, assigned, edited (or in some cases, wrote) and proofread all feature stories for four regional editions and one international edition. Managed a stable of 12 to 17 freelance writers.Oversaw all news in the print editions and posted four news stories to the website every day by using a CMS.

I wrote about 50 stories for this publication covering the tradeshow industry.

Greater New York City Area

While in this position I was the Editor-in-Chief for three multi-feature regional travel supplements that brought in $100,000. I managed up to six freelancers' contributions monthly, from the assigning stage through editing. I was solely responsible for a monthly Q&A column that alternated between hotel industry movers and shakers and hotel chefs.

Contributed weekly submissions to the magazine's blog. Revised pages, and individual stories, in QPS; mentored junior staff on reporting and writing; became a trusted advisor to the Editor-in-Chief on sourcing, news judgement, and story placement.

Wrote cover and inside stories on hotels, travel industry trends, lawsuits, and destinations. Hand-picked to exclusively cover a controversial commission cut by a luxury hotelier.

*Covered airlines, travel agencies, conference centers, trade show management and several destinations.*Took over the hotel beat, the largest assignment on staff, after a short tenure at the magazine.*Established valuable source relationships. *Represented MeetingNews at industry events. *Developed a reputation as a knowledgeable, fair and strong journalist.