Eric Schwartz joins ClarkCountyToday.com after 15-year career in journalism, the last six as editor of The Chronicle in Centralia
VANCOUVER — ClarkCountyToday.com announced Monday the addition of award-winning journalist Eric Schwartz to its news staff.
Schwartz arrives as a reporter at ClarkCountyToday.com after a 15-year career in journalism. Since 2013, Schwartz has served as editor of The Chronicle Newspaper in Centralia. He served as that paper’s assistant editor for two years prior to that.
“This is a significant addition to our news staff,’’ said ClarkCountyToday.com Editor Ken Vance. “Eric is simply one of the most talented journalists I’ve ever interacted with. First and foremost, he’s one of the best hard news reporters I know of in the industry. In addition to that, Eric has a diversity of skills that will fit perfectly with the mission and direction of our digital media organization. Our readers will quickly recognize the excellence that Eric has exhibited throughout his brilliant career.’’
The Chronicle Newspaper is owned by Lafromboise Communications, which also has owned The Reflector Newspaper since June 2010. Vance served as editor of The Reflector from August 2010 to March 2016, teaming with Schwartz as fellow editors of the Lafromboise partnering newspapers during that time.
Schwartz graduated from Forks High School on the Olympic Peninsula before attending Centralia College and Eastern Washington University, where he was the editor-in-chief of the award-winning college newspaper, The Easterner, and received the Edmund J. Yarwood award as the top performer in his class. He covered sports through a fellowship at The Tri-City Herald before taking a full-time reporting job with The Chronicle in 2007. After three years as a reporter at The Chronicle, he traveled to Kalispell, MT, and worked as a crime, courts and emergency services reporter at The Daily Inter Lake, where he won two first-place awards for spot news coverage from the Montana Newspaper Publishers Association. In 2011, he returned to The Chronicle as the assistant editor before being promoted to editor in 2013.
Under his leadership, The Chronicle was the recipient of several C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Reporting, and the newspaper was twice given the General Excellence Award as the top performer in its category by the Society of Professional Journalists. Schwartz has also been the recipient of two C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for his own reporting and has garnered additional individual awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Most recently, he and his staff were honored with a Key Award from the Washington Coalition for Open Government for The Chronicle’s editorials and news coverage focused on transparency in county government.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to join the skilled, hard-working journalists at ClarkCountyToday.com,” Schwartz said. “When this opportunity presented itself, I took one look at the existing staff and knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. My new coworkers, the intense local focus of news coverage, a strong interest in ensuring government transparency and the innovative culture of ClarkCountyToday.com have me excited about the future. I am beyond thankful for this opportunity.”
Schwartz and his wife Heather have a son Bauer (age 3) and daughter Karolyn (age 1). When he’s not pursuing the news or reading about it, Schwartz enjoys following Eastern Washington University athletics, spending time with his family and participating in efforts to make his community better through nonprofits and other organizations.
