Barry Owens Joins Greteman Group as a Writer/Producer

Barry Owens has joined Greteman Group, a Wichita-based marketing agency, as a writer and video producer. He comes to the agency with more than five years behind a video camera and 15 years in the newspaper business.

“I’m always looking for the story, and then for the best way to tell it,” Owens says. “Greteman Group shares that philosophy, so I already feel very much at home.”

A writer whose interest first led him to newspapers, Owens worked most every beat at papers in Kansas and New York, started his own paper in Wichita, The College Hill Commoner, and finally was a special section editor at The Wichita Eagle. At every stop, he aimed to tell stories rather than stack facts.

He’s won multiple awards for his newspaper writing, especially in the feature-writing category where he excelled in finding compelling stories that were often off the beaten path and always engaging.

Owens was a video producer for five years at United Way of the Plains, a job that did not exist there before he created it. He was originally hired to write copy, but saw that video was often the best medium for their message and went to work producing many dozens of them a year on his own in-house. From commercials to campaign videos to social media shorts, he’s done them all.

“Barry brings a quirky, unexpected approach to every project,” says Sonia Greteman, agency president and creative director. “He captures your attention and holds it. Whatever the media. Video, print, digital, broadcast. Even better, he connects emotionally. He might have you laughing one minute and tearing up the next. The one thing he’ll never do: bore you.”

COVERAGE: Bulldog Reporter 4.13.16 Wichita Eagle 4.20.16