Beacon Staff

John Fredericks Publisher

John Fredericks, a Roswell, GA resident for 17 years, is the founder and Chairman of Beacon Media Companies, Publisher of the Roswell Beacon, the Alpharetta Beacon, the Milton Beacon and Beaconcast.com.

A 1980 graduate of Fairleigh-Dickinson University, where he majored in economics and political science, Fredericks has been a senior media publishing executive for more than 25 years and has served some of the largest newspaper companies in the United States.

As Chairman of Beacon Media Companies, the complete news and information source of North Fulton County, Fredericks is dually committed to serving both readers and advertisers in an enlightened way.

“As a publication invited into your home, we must respect our community, our families and our readers. We must behave with honor, valor and distinction to earn your trust, and eventually, your time”

“Our sole mission is to provide our coveted readers with quality and in-depth local news and analysis that affect their life, work and play. Education, High School Sports, and Local Government are several of our major focus points; we are dedicated to fair and balanced reporting, we promise to ask the tough questions and to tackle the tough issues no one else chooses to cover. We strive to serve every reader with valuable and lively content that provides a return on their investment of time with the Beacon, whether it be in print, online, radio or television. Our core promise to our readers is simply this: we will never sell out. Not to special interests, not to business, not to the developers, not to politicians and not to political agendas.“

“In regards to our advertising community, we believe the market is changing at a rapid pace, and media leadership must gain alignment," says Fredericks. "We advocate and embrace a dramatic new selling proposition for our valued advertisers. Our distinguishing characteristic is that we guarantee a return on investment on each sales solution that we bring to our customers. We challenge traditional internally-focused and myopic advertising sales venues to provide all advertisers with a guaranteed ROI and an explicit expectation of performance and results as we seek to drive a paradigm shift from product-and-presentation focus to customer-centered pertinence and solution relevance."

John lives in Roswell with his wife, Anne and their three children, Jack, Claire and Joseph. John can be reached via email at jfredericks@beaconcast.com

Tim Altork Senior Editor

Tim Altork has been a sportswriter for the past four years covering high school sports in Roanoke, Alabama, for the Randolph Leader. He also was a sports columnist for Atlanta’s Sunday Paper for the past year before coming to the Beacon. He was born and raised in Albany, Georgia, and played baseball at Darton College for two years before earning a BA in political science from Valdosta State University in 1999.  Tim lives in Sandy Springs with his wife Heather and two young children. Tim can be reached via email at taltork@beaconcast.com

Dayton P. Strickland Photojournalist

Dayton P. Strickland is an award winning photojournalist with more than 20 awards to his credit. He comes to Beacon Media after a five year stint with The Daily Tribune News in Cartersville, Ga. He has worked as a photojournalist for the Thomasville (Ga.) Times-Enterprise and the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette. Dayton came to photojournalism after a 25 year U.S. Air Force career where we was a public affairs superintendent. He is married to Anita Ratke of Mainz-Kosteim, Germany, has one daughter, Monika, and two granddaughters, Jessica and Megan. Dayton can be reached via email at dstrickland@beaconcast.com

Muzette Randall Director of Marketing

Muzette Randall brings to the Beacon over 25 years of advertising sales, marketing and management experience. Her career has included broadcast, direct mail and interactive media as well as direct print and advertising agency sales development. Muzette began her newspaper career with the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer as the circulation marketing coordinator. She successfully transitioned to advertising when she joined The Montgomery Advertiser Journal as National Manager. She then moved to a regional and national advertising sales assignment with Landon Media representing newspapers across the country, including publications in every major city in Georgia. She is proud to have served as President for the Atlanta chapter of the Newspaper Advertising Sales Association. Muzette was a pioneer in the industry’s effort to streamline multiple newspaper placement and billing through her efforts with The Newspaper Network and The Associated Press. Most recently she launched her own consultant company, Ten20 Marketing. Muzette is a dedicated advertising professional who is committed to servicing her clients with programs that achieve results. Muzette, her husband Russ and children Christopher, Elizabeth and Matthew moved to the Atlanta area in 1991. She can be reached via email at mrandall@beaconcast.com

Karen Matthews Sales Representative

Karen Matthews has 13 years of customer service experience as a ticket agent with United Express Airlines and 14 years of experience as a corporate sales consultant with  Conference and Travel Services in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  A native of Indiana, Karen attended Indiana University in Fort Wayne and moved to Roswell in 2007. Karen can be reached via email at kmatthews@beaconcast.com

Jon Copsey Local Reporter

Jon Copsey was born in Buffalo, NY and spent most of his early childhood moving from place to place. Before too long, he ended up at Purdue University where he majored in History and minored in English. After Purdue, Jon went over to England to study for a Master's Degree in Classical History at the University of Reading. After graduating, Jon moved back to the States to figure out what to do next. Now in Roswell, Jon is still figuring things out. In his free time, he enjoys media of all sorts, especially books, movies, and music. Jon can be reached via email at jcopsey@beaconcast.com

Cheryl O'Rielly Director of Design

Cheryl O'Rielly graduated from San Diego State University and received a B.A. in Art with a minor in Business Marketing. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived in San Diego, California for twenty years. She moved to Roswell with her family in 1997. She is married with 2 children and loves to spend time with her family. Cheryl can be reached via email at corielly@beaconcast.com

John Breech   Sports Writer

John Breech has spent the last two years of his life trying to come up with synonyms for the word "disappointing" as he wrote weekly about the Cincinnati Bengals on Growlzone.com. He began his college career in the fall of 2000 as a football player at Hanover College (Ind.). He finally finished his college career, an unexpected shock to family and friends, in Dec. 2005 with a B.A. in English Journalism from Miami of Ohio. While at Miami, John was a student assistant for a football team that made consecutive bowl trips for the first time in 30 years. He also co-founded the university's favorite publication, Miami Quarterly (Mq). John now resides in the North Fulton area. In his spare time, he likes to discuss the fortune of Bulldog football with UGA fans. John can be reached via email at jbreech@beaconcast.com

Alan Sverdlik Senior Correspondent

Alan Sverdlik is a former feature writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a contributing editor at Atlanta magazine. Born in Ukraine but raised in New York City, Sverdlik attended Emory University where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in Southern History and English. An avid cyclist, tennis player and golfer, he has traveled to many far-flung destinations, including Thailand, Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia. He is a linguist by avocation, having taught English as a second language to Hispanic immigrants and newcomers from the former Soviet bloc. Alan can be reached via email at asverdlik@beaconcast.com