Chuck Nowlen

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

Owner/Turnaround & Start-Up Specialist — Magazines, Newspapers, Websites
CAN2 Media, Minneapolis St. Paul, MN, 2005-Present

Consultancy specializing in: * Digital and print business models, methods, processes and management; * staff productivity, chemistry and motivation; * maximum-impact content; * optimal copy and production deadlines; * IT and project management; * web design and development; * statistical methods and analysis; * social media; * multimedia and interactivity; * mobile applications; * SEO; * Schein process consultation techniques; * marketing.
• Designed, produced and coded personal website, chucknowlen.com, 2009; built auto-redirect mobile site, 2011. Tech fluencies: HTML; XHTML; CSS; Javascript; PHP; InDesign; Quark; PowerPoint; Excel; Word; Dreamweaver; Photoshop; Flash; Movie Maker; Drupal, Wordpress, Blogger, SiteManager and other open source and commercial content management systems; Nvu/KompoZer, GIMP, FileZilla, Audacity and other open source digital-media and web-development applications; Google Analytics.
• 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 tailored to the Madison/Dane County, Wisconsin market.
• Streamlined production, upgraded graphics and energized staff, readership and advertising base as interim editor and website content manager, Fenderbender Magazine, a national business-to-business monthly serving the US collision repair industry, 2007.
• Researcher/Author, "IT Management and The Capital Times's Digital Conversion – One Year Later," 2009. (Among more than two dozen publishing/website consultations and partnerships.)
• Graduate student, Part-Time MBA Program, University of Minnesota/Metropolitan State University; Web Design and Development Program, St. Paul College, 2006-2010.(Course work completed, August 2010.)
• Judge, Minnesota Magazine and Publishing Association Excellence Awards, 2008, 2009; member since 2007. Member, Wired Journalists.

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

Managed all aspects of alternative weekly newspaper's content, production and editorial administration. (Circulation: 65,000. Readership: 250,000.) Reorganized staff and production schedule, and revamped editorial product, yielding unprecedented market dominance while energizing newsroom team. Managed website content; supervised site upgrades. Weekly editorials. Frequent cover pieces, news stories, profiles and reviews.
• Cut free-lance 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 Publications 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.)

Managing Editor
Madison Magazine, Madison, WI, 1991-1996

Managed monthly city magazine's editorial administration and production. Revamped front-of-the-book "Our Town" 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.

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

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 production. Coordinated Page 2 community calendar.
• As Senior Reporter, set newspaper's one-year byline record (459) after only 11 months on the job in 1998. Beat areas: crime; city, county and state government; higher education.
• Winner: The Capital Times 1999 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.)

Media Specialist
Office of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 1988-1991

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, an 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 the Dane County, WI jury system amid disproportionately high black arrests.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

Instructor, Ring's All American Karate, Monona, WI, 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: Turnaround & Start-Up Specialist — Magazines, Newspapers, Websites, CAN2 Media, Minneapolis St. Paul, MN.
• 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: Editor, Las Vegas Weekly, Las Vegas, NV.
• 1998-2000: Senior Reporter, The Capital Times, Madison, WI.
• 1996-1998: Communications Consultant/Freelance Writer, Madison, WI.
• 1991-1996: Managing Editor, Madison Magazine, Madison, WI.
• 1988-1991: Media Specialist, UW-Madison, Madison, WI.

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