John E. Simmons.com

Media work experience
John Simmons is an experienced, award winning journalist who has written more than 30,000 news stories for television stations and newspapers, written and produced more than 250 documentaries and magazine-style stories, and has produced and supervised more than 4500 live newscasts and public affairs programs. He also shoots and edits video.  Examples of still photography are in the galleries on this site. Examples of writing are in the writing section.

Contact at PO Box 50682, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32240, (904) 247-3138, or at the email address in the sidebar.

Here is a long-form news package shot and edited by John in October, 2008, and co-written with voice over talent Terry Casey.  (Very large file – slow to load)

Taxwatch video

A production company sought my services to write the screenplay and the musical score for a five-minute movie. Here’s the result, “Final Connection.”  (Very large file – slow to load)

Final Connection

Media work background

Video Law Services, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida   2000-2008
As senior producer, wrote and produced 15-20 minute documentaries used by attorneys in settlement negotiations.  They were much like 60-Minutes, 20/20 or Dateline stories. This job also included mining the Internet and on line sources for information used in the stories. These documentaries won numerous DV Awards, Summit Awards, and Communicator Awards.

WAWS-TV/WTEV-TV, Fox and UPN affiliates in Jacksonville, Florida 1996-1998
As executive producer was part of the management team that put together a news department from scratch.  Was responsible for hiring some employees and recommending others. Responsible for creating the on-air look as well as supervising the newscasts aired on both stations.  Wrote scripts and copy-edited the writing while supervising producers and reporters.

WGHP-TV, Fox owned and operated station, High Point, North Carolina 1995-96
Produced and wrote various newscasts throughout the broadcast day.  Successfully created a segment called “What’s Happening” that provided the viewer with information on entertainment in the region. The segment proved sufficiently popular to expand from one to three newscasts.

WJKS-TV/WAWS-TV, ABC and Fox affiliates in Jacksonville, Florida 1992-1995
Employed by WJKS to produce a nightly newscast for WAWS from the WJKS newsroom.  Responsible for the whole WAWS product, writing the entire newscast, and supervising the reporters and photographers.  Also acted as liaison between the WAWS general manager and the WJKS management team . Created the newscast philosophy and produced ratings increases not only from year to year, but from book to book.  As the fees for producing the newscast increased along with the ratings, WAWS became the largest single revenue source for WJKS. Also wrote and produced episodic promotions that aired on WAWS nightly. These promotions were specifically written to attract younger demographics to the newscasts.

WITN-TV, NBC affiliate in Washington, North Carolina 1989-1992
Wrote and produced newscasts concentrating on viewer benefit. As a result, we rose from a last place rating in the market to tied for first.  The sales staff was delighted with the ad revenue increases.  Also supervised the intern program with an emphasis on training the interns to be future employees.  We hired a number of them to part-time and full-time jobs.  The newscasts earned several Associated Press Awards, including Best Newscast.

The Jones County News Newspaper for Gray, Round Oak and Wayside, Georgia, 1988-89
Hired to write sports stories, role expanded to include photography and most of the newspaper’s darkroom work.  Began a weekly column and wrote enough stories for the paper to create a new section, making more space for advertising with resulting increased revenues.

Vision Productions, Inc. Macon, Georgia 1987-1989
Wrote, produced, shot, edited and directed corporate videos for companies such as Bluebird Bus Company and Destiny Industries, political ads that helped elect candidates such as Mayor Lee Robinson, and a video that successfully promoted Macon as the site for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

WMGT-TV, Macon, Georgia 1985-1987
Produced and directed newscasts and shot, edited and wrote news stories for this NBC affiliate.  With the sports director, created and produced a half-hour weekly high school football show, end of the year sports specials, and short programs to fill time after Sunday afternoon movies. All of these specials produced revenue for this cash-starved station. Earned the Associated Press Best Newscast Award in 1985 and the Georgia Association of Educators School Bell Award in 1987,

Education
Georgia State University – majored in music education and composition
Woodrow Wilson College of Law – Juris Doctor degree

Computer skills
Worked primarily with Windows based computers, but also with Mac, UNIX and BSD machines. Extensive use of Microsoft Word, some use of the other Office programs, Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, and numerous digital audio programs.

Professional References
Terry Casey
Terry Casey Voiceworks, Jacksonville, Florida, 904-226-0723

Tory Ryden
News Anchor, News 8 (ABC), Portland, Maine, 207-523-4503 (station), 207-615-8864 (cel)

Keith Weiss
News Planning Manager, KXAS NBC 5 News, Fort Worth, Texas, (817)-654-6300
Email: Keith.Weiss@nbcuni.com

Kyle Meenan
Anchor/Reporter, WTLV-TV12(NBC)/WJXX-TV25(ABC), Jacksonville, Florida 904-813-6949

Robert Lee
News Producer, CNN Headline News Dayside, Atlanta, Georgia (404) 878-2107

Dave Hansen
Anchor/Reporter, KIMT News 3, Mason City, Iowa (641) 420-8407

Personal Reference
Michael Fitzgerald
Journalism and Communications, Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida (904) 388-3224, mfitzgerald@flagler.edu

Awards

Associated Press Best Newscast Award 1985

Series “The Quality Basic Education Act,” Georgia Association of Educators School Bell Award 1987

Associated Press Best Newscast Award 1991

Associated Press Best Continuing Coverage Award 1991 (Gulf War Coverage)

Gavin Conwell Documentary, Summit Award 2001

Hayley Hawkinberry Documentary, Communicator Award 2001

Anika Sulzburg Documentary, Communicator Award 2001

Axiem Award for Excellence in Electronic Media 2001

David Hoffman Documentary, The DV Award 2002

Estate of Jim Warmowski Documentary, Communicator Award 2002

Maurice Duncan Documentary, The DV Award 2002, Communicator Award 2002

Dr. Alvin Gross Documentary, The DV Award 2002, Communicator Award 2002

Skye McQueen Documentary, The DV Award 2002, Communicator Award 2002

Johanna Shirley Documentary, The DV Award 2003, Summit Award 2003

Michael Walters Documentary, The DV Award 2003, Summit Award 2003

Krista Miller Documentary, The DV Award 2006

Hope Patterson Documentary, The DV Award 2007