Cornelius Swart

46 NE Monroe St.

Portland, OR 97212

Cell: 503-475-6049

cornelius.rex@gmail.com

@corneliusrex

www.corneliusswart.com

Freelance Reporter

Aug 2010 - Present

Specialized in hyperlocal, investigative and legal affairs reporting for publications including Just Out, the Willamette Week, and the Oregonian

Portland Media Lab

Nov 2008 - Dec 2010

Founder, Consultant

Founding Member of the non-profit group Portland Media Lab that offered contract services to local governments and publications (Oregonian,Portland Voice, etc) wishing to utilize new media to maximize reader/civic engagement.

Assessed client needs.

Designed web-based user experience including content management systems for user generated content.

Reviewed and assisted in the development of editorial, publishing, user recruitment and engagement strategies, and monetization models.

Reporter/News Analyst, EnzymePDX.com

Jul - Sept 2010

Reported on the political affairs of Portland City Hall and the Metro Council and on environment, growth management, and transportation issues.

Engaged and attracted an audience of highly educated, high-income readers from around the region.

Managing Editor/Publisher of The Sentinel

2005-2010

Owned and edited the Portland Sentinel, an award-winning news service covering North Portland, Oregon, that published for 5 years without a retraction.

Portland, Oregon, that published for 5 years without a retraction. Grew circulation from 12,000 to 27,000 units a month with 43,000 unique online visitors/users.

Consistently broke news of citywide interest.

Managed a staff of up to 24 freelancers, volunteers, and interns, assigning stories and overseeing filings and revisions.

Developed a unique voice that mixed humor with hard news.

Early adopter of new media trends including video blogging, podcasting, and systems for online user generated posts.

Developed a Drupal based content management system that underwent three generations of design and function upgrades.

Owner/Video Producer, Sydhonda Media LLC

2005-2007

Shot and edited video content for web developer Intellect2 whose clients included the NBA, the Portland Trailblazers, Palm, and Hyatt.

Independently produced documentaries on social and environmental issues such as gentrification, transportation, and clear-cut logging.

Community Organizer in Columbia Villa

2001-2002

Worked with community and non-profit groups to develop projects to engage citizens in government and their neighborhood

Worked on committee that developed the protoype for the City's online civic engagement project now known as www.portlandonline.com

Created, raised money and administered a multilingual community newspaper called the North Portland Press that was printed in Russian, Hmong, Spanish and English

Technical Skills

Adobe Creative Suite; Final Cut Studio; Audacity; Basecamp; Microsoft; Apple and Google office applications; Quickbooks; Drupal and Wordpress; basic HTML. Photography, video and audio production; deep search and semantic web techniques; and understanding of web trend and site analytics.

Awards and recognitions for the Portland Sentinel

First Place - Best online coverage, Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) 2009

Second Place - Best multimedia feature, SPJ 2009

Ranked the 10th most politically influential blog in Portland, City of Portland 2009

Third Place - Best religious feature, SPJ 2008

Best community newspaper, Willamette Week 2007

Independent and contract video producer

1997-2005

Produced independently documentaries, produced video shorts and worked in studio for public, commercial and independent television.

Some highlights:

Good Kharma Productions: Contract producer; 2005; Portland, OR

Zig Zag tv pilot: Web video producer; 2004; OPB - Portland, OR

The Purple Cow tv pilot: Producer on camera reporter; 2003; KMTP - San Francisco, CA

Northeast Passage, indie documentary: Producer; 2002; Independent

Sydhonda Media: Commercial media producer; 1997-2005; Independent