Bio

My 30th birthday proved to be a turning point not because it brought a revelation about my future. Instead, a simple, thoughtful gift from my wife changed its course.

She gave me an original 1974 copy of "All The President's Men" by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The film version had been a favorite and made me want to become a reporter. At this point in my life, I had been out of journalism for more than three years.

Reading the tale of two journalists taking down a president and the book's much more detailed account of their reporting and the the scope of the crimes by Nixon and his acolytes reinvigorated my interest in journalism.

Later that year, I applied to the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism and in September 2007 began my master's degree.

I finished my degree in December 2008, then spent three months interning at Bloomberg News in New York before being hired to a full-time position in April.

This site comprises a mixture of my graduate school work and my career at Bloomberg and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Enjoy.

Matt Townsend
townsend94@gmail.com
Resume (.pdf)

Experience
- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (1998-2003)
- Bloomberg (2009-Present)

Internships:
- Bloomberg News (Winter 2009)
- New York Daily News (Fall 2008)
- ProPublica
(Summer 2008)
- New York Observer (Spring 2008)

Multimedia Skills: Video reporting & editing, audio reporting & editing, basic web design, flash, photography & photo editing.

Software Skills: Final Cut, Flash, Photoshop, InDesign (pdf), Dreamweaver & Soundslides.

Multimedia

The Wineification of Beer: The movement to change the way people think about beer has many devotees. Check out my final project for grad school here.

Bike Boom: This solo class project uses video, photography and sound to chronicle the growing bike business in New York City. Published on New York City News Service. Watch here.

"I'm Tottenham 'Til I Die": British football fans flock to a Brooklyn bar to watch not powerhouses Manchester United or Chelsea, but Spurs. I took the pictures and designed the Web site for this group class project. Watch here.

Buying the American Dream in Ecuador: As part of a class project on immigration in Queens, I did a story with two classmates on Corona Queens. I wrote the story, produced the audio slide show and took most of the pictures. Watch here.

Pub Crawling for Obama:On the Saturday night before New York's primary, which was part of Super Tuesday, a handful of New Yorkers bar hopped to canvass for Sen. Barack Obama. I took the pictures and recorded the audio. Watch the audio slideshow here.

Print

Business
-Retail Jobs Hard to Come by in Recession
-Super Bowl Lures Fans Back to Pittsburgh
- Men May be Untapped Market in Toning Shoes
- Bear Stearns Staffers Party on Banks Scrap Holiday Events
- Bank CEO Says Doesn't Deserve 'Vindictive Tax'
- Blizzards May Prove 'Double Whammy' for Florists
- U.S. Stock Market Coverage
- Currency Coverage: Canadian Dollar
Political
-Voting Ban at VA Hospitals Called Silly
-Clinton Fan Talks Up Her Gal
-Chewing the Fat at Munce's
Environmental
-Flat Screen TVs Hyped as Climate Threat
Breaking News
-Pregnant Woman Saved by Neighbors
Features
-Jazz Man Gets a New Gig
-Ghost Town on Orchard Street
-Mr. Met Says No Smoking
-Broderick Remembers Lots of Chimps
-Angle Mulls Another Olympic Bid
-Tyler Palko Goes out on Top
Tech
-Car That Drives Itself Could be Future

Video

Fans Camp Out for NFL Draft: I took a small video camera and an SLR digital camera to the NFL Draft and did a story on fans waiting waiting in line for hours for free tickets to the event.
A Wine Bar that Only Serves Beer: With a sound recorder and a SLR digital camera I produced this audio slideshow of Beer Table in Park Slope, Brooklyn that was part of my multimedia story on The Wineification of Beer.

Michelle Obama Impresses Voters: A group of classmates and I travelled from New York to New Hampshire for its 2008 primary. We found out about this Michelle Obama event only a few hours before it happened. I also wrote this story for the Huffington Post earlier in the day.