Creative journalist with tons of experience (Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, Chicago magazine) including the visionary Chicago-centric news and culture review, The Beachwood Reporter. Innovative leader and skilled manager whom people want to work for. Dedicated to forward-looking journalism with a strong ethical backbone.

1. “Your resume is a treat to read!” – Jack Lusk
Steve Rhodes____________________________________________
srhodes800@gmail.com LinkedIn Twitter Instagram
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Read Before Burning: This resume is expansive because it tells a compelling story:
I’ve consistently led, excelled, and created change throughout my career. I’ve also
continually engaged with the larger issues facing the industry.
Objective: To put my leadership, creativity, vision, knowledge, ethical clarity - and
editing, reporting and writing skills - to use in a forward-looking, fun, mission-
driven digital news organization.
Education:
Northwestern University:
• Self-designed, pioneering M.A. in newsroom management combining coursework
from the Medill School of Journalism, the Kellogg Graduate School of
Business, and the School of Communication. June 1993. Nicely
complemented my on-campus work at the Newspaper Management Center,
as noted below.
• Master's Certificate in Telecommunications Science, Management and Policy.
June 1993. That’s what “online” used to be called in the early days, when I
knew it would change everything.
University of Minnesota:
• B.A. in Journalism. December 1989. A proud graduate of journalism school,
which provided the foundation in history, law and ethics that every journalist
needs, alongside coursework in political and investigative reporting that well-
supplemented my work at The Minnesota Daily.
Employment:
10/05 to current* The Beachwood Media Company
Editor, Publisher, Founder
The editorial force behind The Beachwood Reporter, the world’s
wittiest Chicago-centric news and culture review (and the longest running “new
media” property in the city. Read widely by the city’s media and political complex,
as well as community groups and civic-minded folks. Conceived of innovative and

2. visionary features/coverage across areas including music, TV, books, sports, politics
and beyond. Among the accolades: featured in the American Society of Newspaper
Editor’ publication The American Editor in “Tips From Eight Of The Best” – link
removed due to deadness. Managed staff of two dozen or more writers of various
abilities, including at least one Pulitzer Prize winner and several newspaper
veterans as well as total amateurs. Produced awesome podcasts. The most popular
feature was my daily Papers column, ahead of its time and better than the rest in
its incisive, unmatched media criticism and political analysis. All of this on less
than a shoestring.
* The site is now well past its peak and in “suspended animation” due mostly to
costly tech and design issues; I know the site is degraded, even more so due to a
recent move to WordPress, which cost us still more design aesthetics and tech
capabilities. So it kind of looks like crap now, instead of what was once a tight,
detailed affair.
In lieu of a tech and/or business partner comes along – the business plan goes well
beyond this website – I’m freelancing and available for full-time, part-time, contract
and temporary work as an editor, reporter, writer, researcher, investigator,
podcaster, innovator.
Also during this time:
• 07/20 to 10/20 Census Field Supervisor
Effectively trained and managed a short-term team of 25 by
quickly inspiring loyalty and productivity through building culture, engaging in
transparency, improvising solutions together with humor and compassion, and
taking disciplinary action when necessary firmly, fairly and clearly. My team
loved me and other supervisors’ team members wanted to work for me.
 03/08 to 12/09 Division Street
Wrote, reported and curated a witty and incisive daily blog
about “Chicago politics and its discontents” for NBC Chicago. The work was then
expanded and moved to a relaunched NBC Chicago website.
 12/11 to 05/12 Beachwood Inn
Tended bar at the namesake of my website and company. Made people
happy. Served readers and writers. Developed sources. Grew sales.
10/99 to 10/05 Chicago magazine
Senior Editor
Primarily responsible for the magazine's coverage of politics,
media, and business — the “Clout Beat” — from untangling the downfall of a
proposed politically-connected casino to provocative pieces such as “The Case

3. Against Daley,” which was adapted into a chapter for The Mayors: The Chicago
Political Tradition. Also created the popular online weekly media column Press Box
(samples here.) See also: “And Now, A Few Words On Behalf Of The Worst Writer
In Chicago,” “Ode To An Eyesore,” and “Why Chicago’s Spineless City Council Just
Can’t Say No.”
11/94 to 10/99 Newsweek
Special Correspondent
A regular contributor to the nation, business, lifestyle and
society sections, from the economics of Michael Jordan’s contract to bisexuality
(which put me in the Congressional Record!); Chicago’s public schools strategy to its
new art museum; tobacco marketing to Fargo’s unemployment rate. Sent on the
road to follow Sammy Sosa’s 1998 home run chase; part of the Unabomber and
Versace killer reporting teams.
6/93 to 11/94Chicago Tribune
Reporting resident
Spent 18 months as a staff writer, habitually landing on the
front page with stories revealing political corruption, murders attributable,
separately, to a failed domestic abuse and child welfare system, and in a change of
pace from gritty urban reporting, features on the planet’s largest Twinkie factory,
the enduring appeal of Chuck Taylor Hi-Tops, and a wildly popular minor league
baseball team in St. Paul, Minn. Also spent time as the rewrite man, and was a lead
political writer on Election Night ‘94.
1993 to 1995 Pure Magazine
Features Editor
Pure, a hip city start-up magazine, was described by Magazine
Week as “the best thing out of Chicago since deep dish pizza.” Newsweek, Details,
Factsheet Five and the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain also noticed. I helped create
Pure’s voice, generated story ideas, recruited writers and edited stories.
1992 to 1993 Newspaper Management Center
Staff Assistant
Research projects included work on local news and Generation X
for both NMC (later the Readership Institute) and Knight-Ridder. Knight-Ridder’s
“Local News Ideabook” became an ongoing project, while “Managing
Twentysomethings” was originally researched for a class and then presented to the
Chicago Tribune at a panel session for senior executives. Also researched and
helped author The Newsroom Brain: A Working Guide to Journalism Decisions; co-
authored the case study “Managing Diversity,” and helped prepare as well as
attended innumerable mid-management level and senior executive-level seminars –
getting the same education they got.

4. 1991 to 1992The Courier
(Waterloo, Iowa)
Police Reporter
Made inroads with previously ignored minority communities,
uncovered paramedics who falsified training documents for annual recertification,
and fought to reorganize police coverage, resulting in public inspection of police
reports for the first time in the paper's history.
1989 to 1991The Ledger
(Lakeland, Fla.)
Police Reporter, Sunday Writer
Uncovered a wildly unconstitutional sheriff's office drug sting
that started with Pablo Escobar and ended with deputies intentionally causing
traffic accidents and perjuring themselves about it later, among other reporting
achievements. Re-prioritized police beat to deepen institutional and policy coverage.
Summer 1989 The New Haven Register
(New Haven, Conn.)
Reporting intern
Took part in the first interview of a former Pentagon hand
subpoenaed in the Operation Ill Wind military contracting scandal; led the
questioning of then-state Attorney General Joe Lieberman, campaigning for the
U.S. Senate, that led to him saying America should bomb Libya regardless of
whether Khadafy was found to be responsible for the bombing of a German disco;
and covered the municipal doings of a town called Shelton in the Naugatuck Valley.
1986 to 1989The Minnesota Daily
Managing Editor, Assistant Managing Editor, Reporter
As M.E., led a 50-plus member staff to the best year in the
history of the nation's best college newspaper. The toll of our investigations,
including resignations, firings, early retirements and a conviction: two presidents,
three vice presidents, one athletic director, one director of minority affairs, and one
physical plant director. Our athletic department investigation, and court victory for
the release of an NCAA report, was featured in Editor & Publisher. And we turned
a profit for the first time in three years in part due to my work with the business
manager. Also edited two annual humor editions.
Previously: Minnesota North Stars PR assistant; University of Minnesota Men’s
Athletic Department Student Sports Information Director; Custom Research phone
surveyor; Chocolate Stars factory line.
Freelance Credits:

5. Inside Sports, Variety, Newsweek Japan, Illinois Issues, Illinois Legal Times,
Delta’s Sky magazine, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun, USA Weekend, the Saint Paul
Pioneer Press, Columbia Journalism Review, Vegetarian Times, the Religion News
Service, Digital Cities Chicago, UPI, No Depression, Crain’s Chicago Business, City
& State, The Chicago Bureau/The Youth Project, The Fine Print, The Grade, and
the Goal magazine hockey program.
Editing: Unlock Congress
The Chicago Principles on Post-Conflict Justice
Awards:
2011: Stopped applying for awards because I by and large don’t
believe in them for a number of reasons.
2010 The Beachwood Reporter named city’s best “blog” by the Chicago
Headline Club, the local SPJ chapter. (It’s not a blog.)
2009 SPJ national award for best investigative reporting by
independent online media for a joint project with Columbia
College about city council committees meeting without quorums,
minutes, and other quasi-required elements.
2008 IRE award for investigative reporting for a joint project with
Columbia College about city council perks and hiring.
2004 National Magazine Award For General Excellence to Chicago
magazine for issues including “The Sad Saga of Bob Greene.”
2004 City and Regional Magazine Association Silver Medal for
Reporting: “Anatomy of a Crash.”
2003 Peter Lisagor Award (Chicago Headline Club) Award For In-
Depth Reporting: “Anatomy of a Crash.”
2001 Peter Lisagor (Chicago Headline Club) Award For Reporting:
“The Day Clout Struck Out.”
2001 Judge, American Planning Association Journalism Awards
1996 Outstanding Achievement Award to the reporting team of
Newsweek’s bisexuality cover story, Lesbian and Gay
Journalists Association

6. 1988 Best College Daily, Society of Professional Journalists
Best Spot News, Daily Extra, SPJ
Leadership Award, University of Minnesota
1986 Minneapolis Star and Tribune Scholarship
1985 Scottish Rite Journalism Scholarship
1983 Bloomington Scholarship
Panelist Appearances:
2012: Columbia College Creative Nonfiction Week: Election
Night Coverage That Rocks!
2011: Leading the Media Revolution: Screening of the
documentary Mashed Media followed by a roundtable
featuring the film’s subjects, including yours truly.
2010: McCormick Fall Fellows Forum/Beachwood Reporter Case
Study
2010: Bleeping Golden: Insiders’ Stories Of Covering The Blago
Trial
2010: Young Leaders Public Interest Seminar: Media
2010: Community Media Workshop: The Business Of Media
2010: CMO Expo Publishers’ Panel
2009: Community Media Workshop: Opinions In The News
2009: Loyola University: Do Newspapers Still Matter?
2009: The MIT Enterprise Forum of Chicago: Innovation and
the 2008 Presidential Campaign
2009: Chicago Media Future Conference: How To Make Money
Selling The News

7. 2008: International Newspaper Marketing Association Strategic
Marketing & Innovation Summit: What Is The Online
Business Model For Newspapers?
2007: Moderator, University of Chicago panel: Reporting on
Human Rights
2006: Community Media Workshop: Emerging Online News
Outlets
2005: HOW Design Conference: Blogging
2002: Columbia College Creative Nonfiction Week: The Craft of
the Columnist
Media Citations/Appearances:
The American Editor, AP, Chicago Public Radio, Chicago Tonight, Chicago Week in
Review, Fox Chicago Sunday, the Guardian, NBC Chicago, The New York Times,
WGN-TV, WGN-AM, CLTV’s Politics Tonight, the Washington Post, CNN’s Reliable
Sources, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Crain’s Chicago Business, the
Christian Science Monitor, CBS Chicago, Chicago Reader, The O’Reilly Factor, The
Rachel Maddow Show, Columbia Journalism Review, On The Media, PressThink,
Newsweek Radio, Untouchable: Mobster Cop, and Deadly Associates.
Classroom:
Guest speaker for numerous classes at Northwestern University, Columbia College,
Loyola University, DePaul University, and the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Organizations:
* IRE
* Minnesota Daily Alumni Association
Miscellaneous:
Entry in CJR’s Guide To Online News Startups (2011)
Q & A with ChicagoTalks (2008)