CV and Background

Curriculum vitae and background

David Mason-Jones

Current occupation
a. Freelance Journalist. 1994 – current.  David has provided feature articles to newspapers, magazines and websites on a freelance basis as well as holding permanent contracts for content provision and performing the role of consulting editor.

An interest in long-form journalism. David is no longer involved with the pressure of daily, weekly or monthly deadlines to produce magazine articles and has become more interested in what he describes as long-form journalism. His interest in this form of journalism has come about because the complicated nature of many issues makes it hard to truly deal with them in the the ‘short-form’ style of journalism where articles may be limited to 800 -1200 words or so. For this reason, David now prefers to write in the format of a book in which the discussion of a topic can be outlined in greater depth and detail.

b. Contributor and editor, Small Farms Magazine. 1998 – 2017 David contributed to every issue of the magazine since its inception in 1998 and its sale to a larger media organisation in 2017. Except for a short break in 2004 to focus on another project, he was the editor between 2002 and 2015. His duties as editor included:-
(1)  Editing contributors’ articles.  Receiving contributions from a network of freelance writers, selecting and editing articles for publication
(2)  Allocating writing tasks. In consultation with the proprietors, allocating writing tasks to freelance journalists.
(3)  Writing articles. Continuing to write articles for each issue of the magazine.
(4)  Photography. Supporting articles with photographs.
(5)  Coordinating Features. Ensuring the editorial matches the advertising.

c. Feature writer and news editor – Key Media Pty Limited 2004 – 2006.
Key Media maintains offices in Sydney, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. David contributed to various magazines within the group on a monthly contract basis. Specifically the roles at Key Media included:
(1)   Australian Broker magazine. Reporting news, gaining interviews and opinion and providing commentary on events affecting the Australian mortgage broking industry. The magazine was published fortnightly.
(2)  Asian Maritime Business. Contributing feature articles about shipping in Asia-Pacific for this monthly shipping magazine.
(3)  Human Resource Management Magazine, Singapore. (HRM Magazine) Conducting interviews, researching topics and writing feature articles for this monthly Singapore magazine focused fully on the HR scene in Singapore.
(4)  Human Capital Asia Magazine, Singapore.  (HCA Magazine) Conducting interviews with HR professionals throughout Asia-Pacific and India, researching and writing monthly articled for this Singapore based magazine with a broad scope to cover HR matters generally within Asia. David performed the role of consulting editor for this magazine.
(5)  Human Capital Magazine. This is Key Media’s Australian and New Zealand based magazine covering HR topics and issues in Australia and New Zealand. David was a senior contributor to this monthly magazine.

d. Editor, The Australian Investor on-line investment magazine. 2001 – 2004. Between October 2001 and June 2004 David edited this investment news and information service. The deadline requirements for this magazine were stringent involving commentary in the form of market wraps three times each day and including Saturday morning to capture the New York and European closes from their Friday’s close. The role also entailed coverage of IPO’s on the Australian market and involved a requirement to interview senior people – usually the Chairman, Managing Director or CEO – in companies involved with the floats.

Specifically the role at The Australian Investor included:-
(1)   Market Wraps. Researching and writing three market wraps per day – one in early morning reporting the overseas markets, one at midday reporting the morning session on the Australian market and one at the close of the Australian market giving a summary of the action. These wraps included detailed information about Australian and overseas indices, currencies, market turnover, share prices, company announcements and Government statements.
(2)   Floats. Covering current floats and posting basic information to the site about floats. Conducting interviews at a senior level within the company to help form a feature article about the float. Writing articles and commentaries about the upcoming floats.
(3)   Capital raisings. Interviewing and researching new capital raisings by listed companies.
(4)   Market News. Actively monitoring the ASX site for company announcements and posting the newsworthy ones to our site. Monitoring other sites and sources such as the ASIC site, the DFAT site and various other company sites.
(5)   Media Releases. Receiving and vetting media releases from companies for inclusion on the site.
(6)   Magazine section. Monitoring and selecting material for this section of the site.
(7)   Personal Profiles. Interviewing a wide range of business people and writing personal profiles for our ‘movers and shakers’ section.
(8)   Prospectuses. Reading prospectuses on-line to gain relevant information about IPO’s and capital raisings for inclusion on our site.

Previous occupations.

a. Business manager. Between 1989 – 1994 David was a business proprietor and manager in the Hunter Valley.

b. AMP Society Representative. Between 1979 and 1989 David was an agent of the AMP Society based in Singleton and covering the Hunter Valley. The AMP was, at that time Australia’s largest mutual life insurance society. It is now a public company in the financial services sector. During his time with AMP he achieved a number of ‘Blue Ribbon’ sales awards for the volume and quality of new life insurance contracts introduced to the Society. Within the AMP’s Fire and General company David achieved the odd-sounding status of ‘Diamond Fire Chief’.

c. Military Service. Between 1967 and 1989 David served in the Defence Force. He achieved the rank of Major and holds the National Medal, The Defence Force Service Medal and the Australian Defence Medal. (For those not conversant with the system of Australian military medals, these are NOT distinguished service medals, campaign medals or medals for bravery. They are medals for basically being a good soldier during his period of service. They are in no way out-of-the ordinary but David is proud to hold them). David’s period of military service covers three phases:-
(1)  Royal Military College, Duntroon. Between 1967 and 1970 He was a Staff Cadet at Duntroon and graduated as a Lieutenant.
(2)  Regular Army Service. Between 1971 and 1979 He served as an officer in the Australian Regular Army. He was a platoon commander in 9th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (RAR), an operations officer in the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), adjutant of the Regular Cadre of a Reserve Infantry Battalion and staff member and equipment trials officer at the Infantry Development Wing of the Infantry Centre.
(3)  Reserve Service. Between 1979 and 1989, while in private business, he continued to serve part time in the Army Reserve. During this period his service was primarily with the 12th/16th Hunter River Lancers, a local unit which was, at that time, an armoured reconnaissance regiment.

EDUCATION
David’s formal education background includes extensive study of communications.
a.  He is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and holds a Diploma of Military Studies from that institution.
b.  During military service he attended tactics and managerial courses for promotion within the officer ranks.
c.  He is a graduate of the Australian Army, Reserve Command and Staff College, Senior Course.
d.  He is a graduate of the University of Western Australia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in which he majored in Politics – a study of political philosophy and political sociology.