Michael Putzel

4938 Quebec Street NW                                                                                                  Phone: (202) 362-3133
Washington, DC 20016                                                                                                                         E-mail link

EMPLOYMENT
Michael Putzel has had a distinguished career as a reporter, editor and executive, including:

2003- Independent “book doctor”
Edits and rewrites biography, memoirs and other nonfiction to help authors sell their book proposals and put their manuscripts in publishable form.

2000-2003 Vice President, Continental Computer Corp.
Director of Web Operations and Communications for software development and Web publishing company that acquired his startup. Managed division with six employees, including editorial, programming, sales and marketing personnel.

1999-2000 Founder and President, WebMilestones, LLC, Washington, DC
WebMilestones, an Internet startup, launched the National Obituary Service on the Web to demonstrate the economic viability of transferring traditional newspaper functions to the World Wide Web. Continental Computer Corp. of Jonesboro, AR acquired the company in December 2000.

1999-2000 Lecturer, Georgetown University
Taught Upper Division journalism and writing in the Department of English.

1996-1999 CEO, Trysail, Inc., Washington, D.C.
Trysail was a research, development, publishing and consulting firm committed to making personal technology easier for nontechnical people. The company performed consulting for software developers, invented a rating system for personal technology, built Web sites and developed a computer center for use by residents of retirement facilities.

1994-1995 “Plugged In” Columnist, The Boston Globe
Launched a weekly section of the newspaper dedicated to covering computers and personal technology in nontechnical terms for the general readership of The Globe. Wrote a weekly column about how technology is changing people’s lives.

1993-1994 White House Correspondent, The Boston Globe
Covered the first year of the Clinton presidency, from the bus ride into Washington to the president’s first trip to Europe and the former Soviet Union.

1991-1992 Washington Bureau Chief, The Boston Globe
Directed coverage of Washington, wrote political analysis and managed a staff of 10 reporters and editors.

1990-1991 Diplomatic Correspondent, The Associated Press, Washington
Covered in-depth news and analysis of foreign affairs from the nation’s capital

1987-1990 Chief of Bureau, The Associated Press, Moscow
Directed AP’s coverage of communism’s collapse from the first flowering of glasnost to the eruption of ethnic and nationalist strife in the Soviet republics and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. Managed a staff that tripled to about 20 U.S. correspondents and Soviet support staff during his tenure. Helped design and install a satellite-based communications system—the first of its kind linking Moscow and New York—enabling the bureau to cover the unfolding revolution.

1979-1987 White House Correspondent, The Associated Press
Covered Carter presidency, Iran hostage crisis and first six years of the Reagan White House, rising to Chief White House Correspondent in 1985. Was standing a few feet from Reagan when a gunman fired at the president in March 1981 and was first to report the attempted assassination. Traveled extensively with Carter and Reagan, including to economic and superpower summits and on the 1980 and 1984 presidential campaigns.

1979 Assistant Metropolitan Editor, The Washington Post
Worked for then-Metro Editor Bob Woodward to enhance the newspaper’s coverage of local issues.

1977-1978 Domestic Affairs Correspondent, The Associated Press, Washington
Covered President Jimmy Carter’s social agenda, from refinancing of the Social Security system to the president’s attempts to overhaul the welfare system and restrain rising health-care costs.

1974-77 Investigative Reporter, AP Special Assignment Team, Washington
Investigated and reported long-term projects, including Nixon’s falsification of documents to gain a substantial income tax deduction on a gift of papers. Also determined and reported that the events surrounding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne on Chappaquiddick Island could not have happened as Senator Edward M. Kennedy described them publicly and in testimony.

1973-74 Washington Correspondent, The Associated Press
Covered the Watergate story as it exploded from a mysterious break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters into a scandal that engulfed the presidency of Richard Nixon. Among many exclusives, was first to report that the Senate Watergate committee had expanded the scope of its investigation from a burglary conspiracy to an apparent coverup at the highest levels of the White House.

1969-1972 War Correspondent, The Associated Press, Saigon
Covered U.S. and South Vietnamese forces in the field and political and military developments in Cambodia and Laos as the Vietnam War spread throughout Indochina.

1968-1969 Editor, Foreign Desk, The Associated Press, New York
Edited reports from AP correspondents abroad for the news service’s principal news report for AP member newspapers.

1967-1968 Newsman, The Associated Press, Raleigh, N.C.
Covered the North Carolina legislature and the 1968 congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.

1963-1966 Reporter, The Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette
Started on the police beat, covered suburban politics and general assignment.

1962-1963 Reporter, The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Covered the Civil Rights Movement, from the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi to Martin Luther King’s mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala., and his March on Washington in August 1963.

EDUCATION
1967 BA in political science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1983 Nondegree graduate study in management and organizational behavior, The American University, Washington

AWARDS

• · Citation, Associated Press Managing Editors, for investigation of the fatal automobile accident on Chappaquiddick Island involving Senator Edward M. Kennedy. (Story was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting.)
• · Honorable Mention, Associated Press Managing Editors, for coverage of the attempted assassination of President Reagan.
• · Merriman Smith Memorial Award for White House reporting for coverage of the diagnosis and treatment of President Reagan’s colon cancer.

LANGUAGES
English (native speaker)
Russian
French

Revised December 2003

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