The Baltimore Association of Black Journalists will meet Saturday Nov. 21st at noon at The Baltimore Sun, 501 N Calvert St, Baltimore, MD 21202.
The November meeting, “Freelance Isn’t Free” focuses on freelancing and contractual employment. Get the skinny on earning every penny from freelance, permalance, contract and various employment positions. We’ll also offer tips on how to manage your benefits and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We’ve invited a panel of talented Mid-Atlantic journalists:
Denis Clay, Editor/Proofreader at Philadelphia Sunday Sun; Philadelphia Editor, BMe Community Newswire. @denisethewriter
Marcus J. Moore, Print Journalist, Digital News Editor and Music Critic currently working for WTOP News, Pitchfork Media and the Washington Post.@MarcusJMoore
Donna Marie Owens, national journalist currently working as a Reuters correspondent, NPR, Essence and The Baltimore Sun contributor.
Panelists Biographies
Denise Clay
Editor/Proofreader at Philadelphia Sunday Sun; Philadelphia Editor, BMe Community Newswire
Denise Clay has been a journalist for more than 20 years. She currently works as a copy editor/proofreader/columnist for the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, and the Philadelphia editor for the BMe Community Newswire. She Her work has also appeared on the websites XO Jane and AllDigitocracy as well as Time.com and the Huffington Post.
Clay has worked at a variety of news organizations including the Philadelphia Tribune, the Bucks County Courier Times, the Elmira Star-Gazette and the Reading Eagle Times. Clay was also an anchor/reporter at WRTI-FM in Philadelphia and hosted a talk show entitled “The Next Movement” on IMG2.com.
She has also freelanced for a variety of publications including Black America
Web, and blogs as The Mad (political) Scientist. She is currently working on her Masters degree in journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she also received her undergraduate degree in Broadcast Journalism.
From 2003-2005, Clay served as president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, a founding chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. During her term, the organization partnered withCN8-The Comcast Network and the Philadelphia Chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association to produce the first of three mayoral debates between former Mayor John Street and his challenger, Sam Katz. The debate won CN8 and PABJ a Mid Atlantic Emmy for their efforts. She also served as a Deputy Regional Director for Region 2 (now Region 1) of NABJ from 1998-2000.
But while she sees herself as a journalist first, Clay is also a researcher who believes that the African American perspective must be included in any academic look at the profession. With the help of NABJ, Clay has done extensive research on journalists and objectivity, minority employment in journalism and student journalism as part of her Master’s program. She has worked with Temple’s Media Education Lab to produce a journalism curriculum that is currently in use for an in-school program sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also taught media arts and literacy in a Communities in Schools program through the Black Women In Sport Foundation.
Marcus J. Moore
Experienced Print Journalist, Digital News Editor and Music Critic currently working for WTOP News, Pitchfork Media and the Washington Post.
Marcus J. Moore is a veteran journalist who’s covered crime, politics, business, education and music in the Washington, D.C. metro area. He’s written full time for The Gazette newspapers in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, and now freelances music coverage for Pitchfork, the Washington Post and Washington City Paper, among other outlets. He’s a Digital News Editor for WTOP Radio in the District and Music Curator for Songza/Google Play in New York City.
In 2010, Marcus served as Lead Editor of AOL’s Patch Web site in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. He launched the outlet, covered local meetings and leveraged his respectable social media presence to build Upper Marlboro Patch’s readership. Throughout his career, Marcus has broken news on political scandals, written enterprise reports about high-end retail developments coming to Maryland, and covered education policy in Montgomery County’s public school system.
From there, Marcus launched his own Web-based music magazine — DMV Spectrum — which reported news on independent entertainers in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. He has reviewed albums for the BBC, aggregated daily music news for Complex, and written features for Paste, Rolling Stone and Billboard. In 2012, Marcus was named one of Prince George’s County, Maryland’s Top 40 residents under 40 years of age.
Donna Marie Owens
Donna Marie Owens is an award-winning national journalist whose freelance work appears in leading media outlets nationwide. She juggles roles as a correspondent for Reuters, and contributes regularly to NPR, Essence and The Baltimore Sun. Other bylines include O, the Oprah Mag, Ebony, Black Enterprise, the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, TheGrio, AOL, MSNBC.com, and BET.com, to name a few.
Owens holds a B.A. in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University, and a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is the recipient of some two-dozen individual/group journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (Md chapter) and the National Association of Black Journalists, among others.
Prior to becoming a freelancer, Owens held staff positions as a producer and investigative reporter for CBS and NBC television stations in several states. She honed her craft as a political and general assignment reporter for Maryland newspaper chains, and a radio anchor/reporter in several markets. A globetrotter who’s visited Africa, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean, Owens has co-authored three Fodor’s travel books. She is active as a youth mentor and educational advocate.
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