Chuck Nowlen

EXPERIENCE BY RELEVANCE (Or Skip To Full Work Chronology Below.)

Media Consultant/Freelance Writer and Editor/MBA and Digital-Media Graduate Student
CAN2 Media, Minneapolis St. Paul, MN, Madison, WI, 2005-Present

• Launched newsroom-management/start-up consultancy, 2006. Specialties short list: * staff hiring, productivity, chemistry and motivation; * maximum-impact content; * optimized budgeting; * integrated copy and production deadlines; * social media; *analytics; * Schein process consultation techniques.
• Freelance writer, Tiger Oak Media (B2B, lifestyle and consumer magazines), Rivertown Multimedia and Superior Cascade Publishing (community weekly newspapers), DeWitt Publishing (B2B magazines), Las Vegas Weekly (alternative weekly newspaper).
• Wrote business plans for: Twin Cities Fit, a high-end fitness/health magazine and website tailored to the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota market; Vegas True Crime, a glossy, literate theme magazine/guest book/website tailored to the Las Vegas, Nevada market; and The Patriot, an online alternative newspaper for the Madison/Dane County, Wisconsin market.
• Streamlined production, upgraded graphics and energized staff, readership and advertising base as interim editor and website manager, Fenderbender Magazine, a B2B monthly serving the US collision repair industry, 2007.
• Designed, produced and coded personal website, chucknowlen.com, 2009; Redesigned site 2012 and 2016. Fully tech fluent.
• Winner: 2015 Wisconsin Newspaper Association first-place award, "Best Business Coverage," Hudson Star-Observer; honorable mention, "Best Feature," 2016.
• Season-long case expert — on-air and background — for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's “Unsolved Season 3: The Devil You Know,” a 10-part multimedia series about the 1998 murder of Father Alfred Kunz, 2019.
• Graduate student, Part-Time MBA Program, University of Minnesota/Metropolitan State University; Web Design and Development Program, St. Paul College, 2006-2010.

Managing Editor
Las Vegas Weekly, Las Vegas, NV, 2000-2001

• As publication's top editor, managed alternative weekly newspaper's staff, content, production and editorial administration. (Circulation: 65,000. Readership: 250,000.) Reorganized production schedule and revamped editorial product, yielding unprecedented market dominance while energizing newsroom, graphics and ad/sales teams. Managed website; supervised site upgrades. Weekly editorials. Frequent cover pieces, news stories, profiles and reviews.
• Cut freelance budget by $6,000-$9,000 per month, using savings to create "Rosetta Stone" Production Coordinator position and upgrade cover and inside graphics. Boosted overall bottom line by $10,000-$80,000 per month, reversing more than four years of red ink.
• Winner: 2001 Western Publishing Association "Maggie" Award, "Best Consumer Tabloid." (Las Vegas Weekly, March 8-14, 2001, "Path of the Goddess.") Also 15 2001 Nevada Press Association first-place awards, including best large weekly newspaper. Individual winner: best editorial.
• Guest lecturer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Journalism 558, “Public, Community and Alternative Media.” (Supervising professor: Jack Mitchell.)

Assistant City Editor/Senior Reporter
The Capital Times, Madison, WI, 2003-2005/1998-2000

• As Assistant City Editor, managed p.m. daily newspaper’s suburban/county coverage, state news, related website content and budget. Recruited and supervised freelance contributors. Copyedited stories. Page design and pagination. Coordinated Page 2 community calendar. As Senior Reporter, set newspaper's one-year byline record (459) after only 11 months on the job. Beat areas: crime; higher education; city, county and state government.
• Winner: The Capital Times Allegretti Award for "journalism that exposes injustices in this community." (This is the newspaper's "reporter of the year" award, and I remain its only unanimous winner.)

Managing Editor/Associate Editor/Contributing Editor
Madison Magazine, Madison, WI, 1992-1996

• As publication's #2 editor, managed monthly city magazine's editorial administration and production after joining the editorial team as a regular freelance contributor. Revamped front-of-the-book "Our Town" grazing section and created quarterly "Health and Wellness" and "Travel" sections. Edited all copy. Monthly features, service pieces and/or columns. Frequent story and magazine PR.
• Winner: State Bar Association of Wisconsin 1992 Wisconsin Gavel award for "Smoke a Joint and Lose Your House" (Madison Magazine 9/92), which exposed abuses of state and federal drug-seizure policies in Dane County, WI.

Media Specialist
Office of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 1988-1992

• All campus administrative, governance and diversity news, and related PR under former Chancellor and US Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala, plus "beat" PR for the university’s highest-profile colleges, schools and academic departments. Served on office strategic-planning and search-and-screen committees. President-elect, Madison Academic Staff Association, 1991 (recruited May 1990).
• Winner: University of Wisconsin System 1990 Academic Staff Professional Development Grant for one-semester job exchange with Spelman College, a historically black women's college in Atlanta, GA.

Communications Consultant/Freelance Writer
Madison, WI, 1996-1998, 2002

• Start-up communications for the Wisconsin Business Development Credit Corporation. Wrote business plan and grant proposals. Developed communications strategy. Coordinated state-agency networking, business presentations, etc. 
• Winner: State Bar Association of Wisconsin 1997 Wisconsin Golden Gavel Award for "White Justice" (Isthmus 11/14/97), which showed systematic exclusion of African Americans in Dane County, WI jury pools amid disproportionately high black arrests.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

Instructor, Ring's Martial Arts, Monona, WI, 2017-18, 1993-1998
Adult, teen and youth Tae Kwon Do classes. Tested and promoted students through red belt rank. (U.T.A. first-degree black belt #1-669 awarded May, 1994.) State sparring champion, 1994. State breaking champion 1990.

Instructor, Madison Area Technical College, Madison, WI, 1989-1990
Creative writing workshops for adult, non-degree students.

EDUCATION

Graduate:
• Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
• Carlson School of Management, Part-time MBA Program, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
• St. Paul College, Web Design and Development Program, St. Paul, MN.
• Graduate Creative Writing Program, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI.
• Metropolitan State University, MBA Program, Minneapolis, MN.
• School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
• School of Exercise and Sport Science, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Undergraduate:
• BA-Journalism/Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.

WORK CHRONOLOGY

• 2005-Present: Media Consultant/Freelance Writer and Editor/MBA and Digital-Media Graduate Student; CAN2 Media, Minneapolis St. Paul, MN, Madison, WI.
• 2003-2005: Assistant City Editor, The Capital Times, Madison, WI.
• 2001-2003: Business-Plan Researcher/Guest Lecturer/Teaching Assistant/Freelance Writer; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
• 2000-2001: Managing Editor, Las Vegas Weekly, Las Vegas, NV.
• 1998-2000: Senior Reporter, The Capital Times, Madison, WI.
• 1996-1998: Communications Consultant/Freelance Writer; Madison, WI.
• 1992-1996: Managing Editor, Madison Magazine, Madison, WI.
• 1988-1992: Media Specialist, UW-Madison, Madison, WI.

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