Peter Kaspari is a veteran journalist with more than a dozen years of experience in writing and editing.

pakaspari (@) yahoo.com
Phone number available upon request.

About Me

I currently work as a freelance journalist on Chicago’s North Shore. A native of the North Shore village of Wilmette in 2007, I made the decision to move to Iowa to attend Simpson College in Indianola. Upon my 2011 graduation with a degree in multimedia journalism, I began working in Fort Dodge, Iowa at The Messenger, a daily newspaper covering a nine-county area in north central Iowa. After eight years of primarily covering cops and courts stories, I made the decision to return home to serve as the editor of The Lake Forest Leader, a weekly hyper-local publication covering both Lake Forest and Lake Bluff. I’ve been freelancing since April 2020, while also doing volunteer work at various nonprofits. I am seeking writing positions in the fields of nonprofits and education, but am also able to work full-time in journalism as either an editor or staff writer.

Skills

  • Writing
  • Editing and Proofreading
  • Photography and Videography
  • Social Media
  • Microsoft Office
  • Google Docs
  • Adobe InDesign

Professional Experience

Freelance Reporter at The Record North Shore
(2021 – present)
I cover stories, as assigned, by the editor of a non-profit newsroom based on Chicago’s North Shore, and quickly turn them around for publication. Most of my experience is with municipal meetings, but I also write features and cover events. When requested, I also take photos for stories.

Editor at 22nd Century Media
(2019 – 2020)
I supervised the production of The Lake Forest Leader, a hyper-local weekly community newspaper dedicated to Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, Illinois. I generated story ideas, assigned stories to freelance reporters, worked with my sports editor to ensure the paper was filled, worked with a layout team to ensure stories were placed correctly, edited and proofread stories for errors, and assisted in the proofreading of sister newspapers.

Staff Writer at The Messenger
(2011 – 2019)
As the cops and courts reporter, I covered the court system in a nine-county area in north central Iowa. I also generated story ideas and wrote about matters pertaining to law enforcement, the judicial system, the people who work in those entities and other related stories. My experience included covering more than a dozen trials, including seven first-degree murder trials. Additionally, I covered general assignment stories – including two Honor Flights to Washington, D.C. – edited the weekly Farm News publication, and proofread and edited stories as assigned by my editors.