Testimonials

“Christie is easily one of the best freelancers that we have—you can tell writing is a career she takes very seriously. Her work continues to take on new depth, and I’m thrilled when we get the opportunity to work with her on a story. While our magazine broadly covers South Louisiana and Mississippi, we take pride in the voices that appear in the magazine and the unusual stories we find and tell. Christie answers that brief well and brightens the magazine with each contribution. She knows when to insert herself in a piece (and is humorous and intelligent when doing so) and when to double-down on her research (I don’t think anyone could make 3,000 words on yellow fever in New Orleans sing the way Christie did). To boot, she’s a fantastic photographer, so her pieces come with the perfect illustrations. In addition to longform articles and experiential pieces, we’ve also worked with Christie to write and curate the monthly events calendar that appears in our magazine. She’s shown savvy in learning the back-end of our website and communicates quickly if she runs into any hitches. If there’s ever an opportunity to use Christie in the magazine, I hop on it immediately.”

–Lucie Monk, Managing Editor, Country Roads Magazine

“As editor of 225 Magazine, I found that Christie’s ability to throw herself into a wide variety of subjects and situations—from across the coffee table to inside a kayak—made her a valuable freelance writer to have in our arsenal. She proved herself to be highly communicative and collaborative throughout the life cycle of the writing and editing process, and her stories always showed great skill at getting to the crux of an issue or the heart of someone’s passion.”
–Jeffrey Roedel, Writer, Louisiana Life Magazine, In Register Magazine, Flood Magazine
& Media Producer, Louisiana Economic Development
“I worked with Christie extensively during my tenure as managing editor of DiningOut magazines. I’m happy to say she was one of the few freelancers who became a go-to resource for us; she was always engaged in her assignments, produced genuinely insightful and entertaining copy, met deadlines without exception, and eagerly sought out more work. Because of this ethic and enthusiasm, I asked her to write for several of our titles. She handled every assignment with aplomb and professionalism, eliciting kudos from many of our clients. I highly recommend her as a freelance writer—she will take your brand/outlet to the next level.”
–Jeffrey Steen, Editor, Early to Rise
“Christie was always one of my favorite freelancers. She was responsive and enthusiastic, honored deadlines, and appreciated feedback. More than that, though, she had a rare talent for writing non-fiction pieces with a storyteller’s flair. Good narrative journalists are so hard to find. Too often, I’d get a classically trained journalist whose prose was too pedantic; or I’d get a creative writer who was fast and loose with the facts or an inveterate naval-gazer. Christie is the sort who can tell a story that’s both true and entertaining. Rare find!”
-Nalini Raghavan, Former Managing Editor, Country Roads Magazine

“I worked with Christie Matherne during the re-branding of a college weekly in Baton Rouge. The university, from which she graduated, was to continue to make up some portion of our coverage, or at least we were to produce content that didn’t alienate them. Three-quarters of the magazine, however, was targeted at the all-important 25-45 demographic, for whom we were tasked with bringing creative, hard-hitting weekly style journalism. I’m not sure I could’ve done my job without Christie, who was hired to be an entertainment writer. I realized almost immediately that she was well positioned to be my section editor: she’s not only an incredible writer but her eye for style alignment, ability to generate leads, and her sense for tying content streams together was essentially unparalleled at that time in my career and has only been rivaled since. Her willingness to take on the absurd (at one point, she spent an entire day and night in a 24-hour bowling alley, chronicling her experience for a lead in the section afterwards) was matched only by her sense of the publication and sensitive administration of the freelance stable under her charge.

In the highly competitive media climate we’re all living in now, a writer like Christie Matherne isn’t a luxury: we’re all looking for Jacks- and Jills-of-all-trades. Too often, in the pursuit of those who can do everything, we find ourselves with a sudden dearth of those who can do any one thing well. I’ve watched her grow into photography since we’ve worked together, and that she’s managed to add that particular value to a media profile that can accomplish so much. I’m the first to admit that I was able to give her only meager resources, which she spun into gold week after week.”

–David S. Lewis, Freelance Writer and former Editor-in-Chief of Dig Magazine

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