Al Kratzer's VisualCV

View My VisualCV Online: http://www.visualcv.com/alkratzer

Al Kratzer

Online Sales Director
Penn Jersey Advance

Al Kratzer is best described as a "Creative Generalist" who has worked as a Sales Director, Creative Director, Publisher, Web Designer, Teacher/Trainer, Graphic Artist, Cartoonist and Musician. He was an early online devotee and began designing Web sites in 1995. Since 1998 he has worked in the newspaper industry developing online products and niche publications focusing on design, content, marketing and sales. He is currently absorbed with the challenges associated with the transition of the newspaper from print to digital. He lives in Easton, PA with his wife and son.

Creative thinker. Continuously seeking out emerging trends, design ideas, and technologies to cultivate new marketing strategies and projects.

Experienced in publication development, including budgeting, concept development, editorial, sales, marketing, promotion, layout and production.

Ability to thrive in project-oriented, multi-tasking and consultant-like environments with little direct supervision.

Publisher experience. Strong knowledge of online, print and niche publishing.

Exceptional communication, organizational and presentation skills.

Solid design and layout skills, including conceptualizing art ideas, graphics creation, image manipulation, typography, scanning and color correction. Traditional art & illustration skills. PDF, HTML, FTP, blog tools, data mining, digital video, digital audio, CD & DVD burning,and Web Browsers.Hardware/software troubleshooting.

New media experience, including strategic planning, online publication design, online sales, editorial & content creation, interface & web page development, video and audio editing & integration, HTML and web graphics skills.

Penn Jersey Advance

Easton, PA, United States

Jan 2009 - Present

Online Sales Director

Develop online sales strategies, develop/deliver sales training, assist online sales managers in reaching monthly sales goals and develop new accounts.

Work with clients and sales managers to create advertising solutions
Coordinate the development of sales collateral with Marketing Department
Participate in new product development and launches
Product analysis, pricing analysis, competitive intelligence, market segmentation

Easton Publishing/Penn Jersey Advance

Easton, PA, United States

Sep 2007 - Jan 2009

VP of Audience Acquisition and Development

Lead initiatives to integrate Internet capabilities into the sales, production and editorial departments. Responsible for four newspaper groups in NJ and PA.

Development and presentation of company-wide internet training
Coordinate new product launches
Develop corporate online sales infrastructure
Direct sales

Easton, PA, United States

Jan 2007 - Sep 2007

VP Online

Direct online sales and editorial development. A lead architect of a company-wide reorganization to integrate online and new product development.

Instrumental in creating a company reorganization plan designed to transform the newspaper to for the digital future
Researched and deployed online project management solutions
Researched and deployed corporate intranet

NJN Publishing/Penn Jersey Advance

Flemington, NJ, United States

Jan 2005 - Dec 2006

Online Director

Led the execution of internet sales and editorial initiatives between newspapers and Advance Internet, the online arm of Advance Publications.

Coordinated the launch of new online products and achieved online budget goal
Created www.njnpublishing.info (corporate Web site)

NJN Publishing

Flemington, NJ, United States

Jan 2003 - Jan 2005

Creative Director

All aspects of new product development including strategic, P&L, design, editorial, sales and marketing. Focus on magazine and direct mail products.

Developed Award-winning magazines and marketing products realizing over $500,000 in revenue in the first year
Managed product redesigns and integrated publication size changes
Worked with multiple newspaper groups to enforce quality and design standards
Production and graphics department training

Flemington, NJ, United States

Sep 2001 - Dec 2002

Niche Publisher

Oversee staff and direct niche publishing products for a chain of weekly newspapers. Publications included an internet portal, corporate Web sites, a regional equestrian newspaper, and all special sections.

Newspaper and special section redesigns
Publisher Horse News

Hunterdon County Democrat

Flemington, NJ, United States

Jan 1998 - Aug 2001

Online Manager

Manage Internet Department for New Jersey's leading weekly newspaper. Developed local Web portal and Web design services for area businesses.

Developed newspaper Web portals
Led the creation of Phase2 Studios, the newspaper's interactive agency
Online advertising and Web development sales

Interactive Ink

Seargeantsville, NJ, United States

May 1994 - Present

Artist/Owner

Freelance multimedia artist - Cartoons, Graphics, Web Design, & Video/Audio Editing.

Designing Web sites since 1994
Editorial cartoons have appeared in numerous NJ Daily & Weekly newspapers
Sports cartoons appeared on Sports Illustrated's SIonline.com, Reuter's SportsWeb, and in The Ring magazine

Creative Thinking
Product Development
Sales & Marketing
Management
Presentation Skills
Training/Teaching
Speed Learning
Microsoft Office -- One Note/Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Outlook
Image Editing -- Photoshop/Painter
Page Layout -- Indesign/Quark/Pagemaker/Acrobat
Web Design/HTML -- NetObjects Fusion/Filezilla(FTP)/Firefox & IE
Audio/Video Editing -- Audacity/Vegas/Media Coder/Band in a Box
Mindmapping -- Mindmanager
Traditional Art skills -- Drawing/Painting/Cartooning/Illustration
Software and Hardware troubleshooting

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, NM, United States

BAS - 1987, American Studies

American Studies degree with an emphasis on politics and media. Minor in Southwest Studies

Music Teacher

From 1982 to 1987 I taught electric bass at a music center. Click on the image to visit my Bass Lessons lens on Squidoo

Mind Maps

Mind Maps are my favorite way to examine a subject. Click on the image to see an example

Jim Rohn Rules!

In this day and age when it seems everyone believes that simply existing entitles them to anything they want, Rohn (who died in 2009) was a welcome dose of reality. Click the image to see a video clip

Goodbye Porkpie Hat

Click on the images to visit my paintings site.

Blue in Green

Lush Life

Represented by:

Just Around the Corner Gallery

5A N. Bank St
Easton, PA 18042
610.258.9850

1997 History Channel - History Web Site Award (www.lindberghtrial.com)

1998 American Horse Publications - 2nd Place for Horse News Web Site (www.horse-news.com)

2000 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/New Product Development (Hunterdon Online Directory)

2003 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/New Product Development (Celebrating in Style)

2003 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/Special Section (Hunterdon Life)

2004 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/New Product Development (Memorable Celebrations)

2004 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/Special Section (Home Design Trends)

2004 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/External Mailing Promotion (Celebrations)

2005 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/Special Section (Home Design Trends)

2005 New Jersey Press Association - 1st Place/External Mailing Promotion (Hunterdon Life)

Pat Martino "Sunny"

$Joey Defracesco$

Check out Joey Defrancesco's organ solo starting at about 6:30 in this clip.

TED - Ideas worth spreading

Not every session presented on TED is a pearl, but the site features a LOT of amazing ideas and innovations.

Stephen Wiltshire draws Tokyo from memory

Makes you wonder just how much more the human brain is capable of that we don't tap into...

John Nieto

An American Master

What Would Google Do?

Jeff Jarvis stitches together a patchwork of blogposts and throws them against the wall to see if any stick. Google would have served up the best of these ideas on the first page of results and saved me a lot of time.

Great River

Full title -- Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History. Paul Horgan provides a tour de force of history surrounding the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Texas. The stories of the Spanish colonial period are mind boggling!

The Back of the Napkin

Subtitled "Problem solving and selling ideas with pictures," this little gem outlines the process of seeing and presenting even the most involved concepts in a clear, simple manner.

Connecting Chords With Linear Harmony

The three basic outlines used in Jazz and hundreds of examples and exercises. This should keep you busy...

Intellectual Type: Visionary Philosopher

Based on an I.Q. test, my type is Visionary Philosopher.

"Your mind's strengths allow you to think ahead of the game — to imagine or anticipate what should come next in just about any situation. Because you're equally skilled in the numerical and verbal universes of the brain, you can draw from multiple sources of information to come up with great ideas."

(Wow! And all this time I thought I was just mildly A.D.D.!)

Stengths Finder

According to StrengthsFinder.com, my top 5 strengths are:

Ideation - making connections

Strategic - predicting patterns

Input - constant inquisitiveness

Learner - seeking improvement

Intellection - deep reflection

Personal DNA

My true self as revealed by my PersonalDNA score:

"You trust others, care about them, and are slow to judge them, making you CONSIDERATE.

Your imagination, confidence, willingness to explore, and appreciation of beauty make you a CREATOR."

PeopleMaps

My PeopleMaps keywords:

*Exact

*Confident

*Sociable

*Stimulating

*Competent

*Risk-taker

*Improvising

*Inspirational

Canon Pixima Pro 9500

Like all computer hardware, printers have come a LONG way in the last decade. Even a cheap inkjet can produce images that were impossible to get in 2000. The Pixima 9500 is an outstanding prosumer choice that far exceeds the average all-in-one home printer. I cannot believe the quality and color reproduction it produces!

Noble Tangerine Clementine Juice

When I was a kid, juice came in orange, apple, grape and tomato. Boring! Now we have dozens of exotics and blends to choose from. My new favorite is this fantastic blend of Florida tangerines and Spanish clementines.

Liquitex Acylic Paint

Every so often I'm seduced by some bargain brand and I'm consistently disappointed. Liquitex Acrylics have no rivals for intensity of their pigments and overall handling qualities. If only my favorite colors didn't cost $14 bucks a tube...

Wacom Bamboo Tablet

Wacom has been the long-time leader for digitizing tablets. The Bamboo is cheap, sensitive and elegant. No setup issues -- it just works. Don't even think about using Corel Painter or Adobe Photoshop without a tablet.

DeLorenzo's Tomato Pie

Since 1947, DeLorenzo's has been making pizza worth traveling for. Thin crispy crust, light on the cheese, imported plum tomatoes and olive oil combine to make a pizza that draws a mob from far and wide every day of the week. (Conveniently located in central New Jersey)

Curio

A freeform notetaking, project managing, brainstorming workspace that has a lot to offer. It's like a digital whiteboard.

imac 27"

After years of being a Windows user, I recently bucked up for a Mac. Spectacular computer -- Apple has a decisive edge in user experience and there are some interesting applications on the Mac platform to choose from.

Adobe CS5 Master Collection

I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe products. They are as powerful as it gets, but not always easy to grasp. The Master Collection contains a wide array of tools for digital creators.

Paintings

See More Art by Al Kratzer

The Painted Note Gallery

I’ve been fascinated by the convergence of art and music and decided to create a blog devoted to the intersection of the two forms of creative expression. The Painted Note includes artwork about music, music about art, artwork by musicians, album art, musical art history, music festival posters, videos, animation and film.

Concept, Content, Design - 2010