Third year’s a charm

The Andy Greder Media Company — as it’s referred to by its only employee — has sprinted into its third year of business. And you know what they say about small businesses within three years?

Well, they usually say they fail at a high clip, but The Andy Greder Media Company is stronger than ever.

In the first two-plus years, the company has built a diversified list of clients by producing meaningful and concise reporting as well as professional business writing.

The list of clients includes newspapers, magazines, e-magazines and news services. Some examples include the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Edible Twin Cities, Minnesota Business, Spaces Magazine, Edina Magazine, Overnight Buses Magazine and the Duluth News Tribune, where he got his start.

Greder’s enterprise reporting with Reuters has been picked up through news services on CNBC, the Chicago Tribune, Yahoo!, and other news outlets.

The company has also worked with trade publications such as the Duluthian Magazine and Positively Superior Magazine from two chambers of commerce in the Twin Ports area. He is currently working on sales materials and advertorials for a large multi-national business. He also recently wrote a complete business and marketing plan for the Pine City Farmers’ Market, where he has sold meat he’s produced and vegetables he’s grown. (That moonlighting gig is another story!)

Also in the two-plus years, The Andy Greder Media Company has worked to maintain its eclectic coverage from breaking news and enterprise journalism on crime, business, sports, politics, the environmental.  One beat has sprouted: agriculture reporting. As the tabs above show, Greder has begun to write more about food, food policy and unique systems to raise and sell food. Yum.

To read Andy Greder’s work, click on the topic tabs. To contact, click on the resume.

Annual Report

(The next post was the introduction after Year One. The following post provides some further background.)

Meaningful, concise and professional. Andy Greder has strived to produce journalism described with those words in his first year as a freelance reporter.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press, Thomson Reuters and The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Andy Greder has cultivated relationships with those organizations and others as he has worked to be an eclectic writer capable of covering varying stories and styles.

His stable of clients also include Minnesota Business Magazine, Maple Grove Magazine, The Duluthian, Lake Minnetonka Magazine, AgriNews, Edina Magazine, The Pine City Pioneer, Lake Superior Magazine, Woodbury Magazine, and the Duluth News Tribune, where he got his start.

Greder, 28, began freelancing once he resigned from a five-year tenure at the News Tribune in March 2010. He traveled to South America and volunteered as an organic farmer. During his travels, rekindled his passion to write.

He wrote travel pieces from Ecuador and Argentina. Before and after his soiree in South America, he has written about business, politics, crime, the environment, breaking news, features and sports.

An editor recently e-mailed to say, “Great job, Andy — tight, concise, clear writing, interesting story, well told. And delivered on very short deadline turnaround, too. Will definitely use you again. Thanks for the idea, the nice work and quick action.”

Greder’s coverage has included first-person, light-hearted pieces on participating in Jazzercise and mixed-martial arts classes and ranging to hard, breaking news such as the devastating tornado in North Minneapolis and a tragic boating accident involving a wedding party.

He has written features on the championship-winning University of Minnesota Duluth football team, a barefoot running guru, the upbringing of indie-rock sensation Bon Iver, personal matchmakers, organic farmers, entrepreneurs and others.

In Year Two, Andy Greder will continue to foster the relationships he’s built and will look to expand to new opportunities.

(For a resume and clips, see the links at the top of the page.)

Background

Before Greder started a career as a freelance journalist, he earned four promotions during his five years at the Duluth News Tribune, the largest media organization in Northeastern Minnesota.

While he earned marketing and journalism degrees at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he started as an intern sports reporter and stringer in 2005. He was hired as a sports clerk upon graduation in 2006 and was promoted to sports reporter later that year. His experience with Abode Creative Suite gave him the opportunity to assist colleagues when the News Tribune changed page design software. His initiative led to added duties as a page designer and copy editor.

On the sports reporting staff, Greder covered high school and college sports and won two awards — a feature writing prize on the last Duluth team to advance to the Little League World Series and an honor for investigative coverage into the eligibility of a UMD women’s college hockey player from Russia.

After more than two years on the sports and copy desks, he took a position as general assignment reporter on the city desk. He covered the U.S. Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, the first homicide in Hermantown’s history and the abrupt layoff of 160 City of Duluth workers. The News Tribune’s team coverage of the layoff story won a spot news award.

On the lighter side, he wrote many features including a fun visit to Duluth from Twiggy the Waterskiing Squirrel. He also wrote a moving personal interest story on an emotional organ transplant picnic where a mother felt her teenage son’s heart beating inside a 60-year-old man.

In March 2009, Greder received a promotion to business reporter. With beats of shipping, mining, health care, retail and real estate, he wrote more than 1oo articles about how the recession impacted workers, businesses and industries.

He shared stories about furloughed employees unable to find work and a woman who struggled with out-of-control debt. He examined the impact of the federal stimulus package on small businesses, first-time homebuyers and drivers wanting to sell their “clunkers.” He collaborated with a team of reporters and editors on more than 45 weekly business sections. He also contributed to a business blog and supported his reporting with the use of social media.

One year later, Greder resigned from the News Tribune to travel and volunteer in Ecuador and Argentina. He continued to feed his passion for writing by posting weekly updates and photos of the trip onto his personal blog. He wrote about experiences on the road, observations of different cultures and opinions on current events. The blog received increased readership in each month during the six-month journey.

As a freelance reporter, Andy Greder can bring these diverse reporting, writing, editing and computer skills to each assignment for your media organization.