CHRIS BOWLING

RESUME

CHRIS BOWLING

Journalism Experience

Investigative Reporter/News Editor, The Omaha Reader

Responsible for breaking news, investigative reporting and editorial leadership across a variety of stories and beats for The Reader, a monthly newsmagazine in Omaha, Nebraska with a circulation of 16,500 print copies. I’ve published more than 300 stories as well as started a daily newsletter, podcast, community engagement initiatives, grant-funded reporting projects and collaborations with local and national media organizations. As an editor, I’ve helped writers win awards in investigative, solutions and feature reporting. I’ve also overseen the paper’s transition from print to online-focused journalism including:

  • increasing our website’s traffic five-fold to reach more than a million annual pageviews;
  • doubling our traffic from social media;
  • introducing new digital-first editorial processes;
  • establishing a membership program that grew to several hundred people.
  • January 2020-present

    Flatwater Free Press - Freelance Reporter

    Contributed reporting on topics such as politics, mass shootings and crime trends.

    September 2018 -present

    New York Times - Freelance Reporter

    Reported with Nebraska’s first nonprofit newsroom on stories like Native American mothers suing their rural school district for cutting their childrens’ hair, which appeared in USA Today and influenced state legislation.

    September 2021 -present

    Omaha Magazine - Freelance Reporter

    As a freelance reporter I’ve had the opportunity to cover human interest stories like a project to save tribal culture through cultivation.

    August 2018-present

    Minneapolis Star Tribune - General Assignment Reporter

    Covered environmental issues, solutions-based journalism and daily stories through qualitative and data reporting in the Twin Cities.

    June 2018-August 2018

    Lincoln Journal Star - Freelance Reporter

    Generated my own stories including features on a refugee who wrote a book about surviving genocide and two gay business owners fighting to make a home in a conservative small town. I also covered politics, events and other daily news stories.

    September 2017-May 2018

    Tampa Bay Times - North Suncoast News Intern

    Covered education, business, local government, courts, crime and general features in Pasco and Hernando counties north of Tampa. I wrote stories about a booming ice center, local Olympic-level skeet shooter and jail programs that give inmates a second chance at life.

    May 2017-August 2017

    Daily Nebraskan - Senior News editor

    In running the independent student newspaper, I manage 30 writers, run weekly budgets and coach stories like a recent investigative package about off-campus apartment complexes and their mistreatment of students.

    June 2016-August 2016

    Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Enterprise and Transportation

    With a small team of enterprise reporters I covered LGBT issues, race relations and politics. I also took over the transportation beat, covering highway deaths, transportation taxes and alternative transit. In my 10 weeks with the paper I had two sunday stories, 10 either front-page or metro visual stories and more than 220,000 page views.

    June 2016-August 2016

    Omaha World-Herald - News Fellow

    Worked as a news intern, writing general features in addition to breaking news.

    January 2016-May 2016

    Lincoln Journal Star - Cops and General Assignment

    In addition to responding to newsworthy crime, combing through incident reports and communicating with duty commanders, as the intern I also write feature stories.

    August 2015-December 2015

    Norfolk Daily News - General Assignment

    As a general assignment intern at the Norfolk Daily News I reported and photographed City Council meetings, a small town trying to recover from a tornado, the death penalty in Nebraska and more across the 22 county coverage area.

    May 2015-August 2015

    Daily Nebraskan - BREAKING NEWS, SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND OPINION

    I wrote over 100, features previews, opinion pieces and news stories including an investigative piece that led to a police investigation of UNL’s top honor society,the Innocents Society.

    August 2014-May 2015

    Education

    University of Nebraska-Lincoln

    Majors: Journalism and Economics. Recipient of George Beadle, Oldfield and Olenberger scholarships.

    August 2014-May 2018

    Skills

    Data Journalism

    Intermediate, experienced in finding, cleaning and analyzing data using programs such as Jupyter Notebooks and Excel. Also experienced in creating data visualizations through code and programs like Adobe Illustrator.

    Adobe indesign, illustrator and photoshop

    Advanced, can put together multimedia projects, design graphics and edit photos.

    Photography

    Advanced, experienced in taking photos with either a DSLR or iPhone.

    Social Media,

    Intermediate, experienced in live tweeting, live streaming and blogging

    HTML/CSS/JAVASCRIPT

    Intermediate, experienced in building websites, using code to analyze and visualize and building basic programs.

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