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About me

Hi! I am an award-winning digital journalist and technologist with over ten years of experience in newsroom leadership and innovation. 

 

I am based in San Francisco, where I co-founded the AI consulting lab Verso. We help newsrooms, nonprofits, and business leaders step into the AI age, drawing on deep journalistic and technical experience. Verso offers AI training, strategy consulting as well as product design and implementation. We are also available for lectures and talks.

 

Previously, I was a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University, where I explored the impact of artificial intelligence on the information ecosystem, especially on media and journalism. I prototyped AI tools for reporters and editors, designed strategies for newsrooms, learned to code (in Python) and built skills in entrepreneurship and business development.

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From 2013 to 2023, I was Head of Social Media for news at the Austrian Public Broadcaster ORF. In this role, I built our social presence on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook from scratch and grew it to reach a daily audience of 2.4 million followers.

Patrick Swanson reporting on the US elections in 2020 from Washington, DC

Election night in Washington, DC (2020)

Patrick Swanson talking to students (2022)

Talk with students in Austria (2023)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

07/2024-now

Co-founder

Verso

  • Verso is a global consulting lab based in San Francisco

  • We support newsrooms, non-profits, and businesses as they step into the AI age

  • Founded by Kaveh Waddell and me as John S. Knight fellows at Stanford

09/2023-06/2024

JSK Journalism Fellow

Stanford University

  • Prototyped new and experimental generative AI tools for reporters and editors

  • ​Developed AI strategies for newsroom leaders and media entrepreneurs

  • ​Explored AI for leadership coaching, built my own chatbot based on GPT-4

  • Researched AI policy and impact on news business, ethics and audience behavior

  • Built a foundation of coding skills (Python) and network in the AI community

2013-2023

Head of Social Media, Zeit im Bild
Austrian Public Broadcasting ORF

  • Founded the social team, built Austria’s largest news accounts from scratch

    • Grew presence to reach a total of 2.4 million followers in a country of 9 million

  • Hired, trained, mentored and managed a young team of six journalists and editors

  • Oversaw news coverage and strategy on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X

  • Started researching AI in 2017, exploring machine learning for content moderation

  • Used data analytics to steer editorial strategy, influencing executive decision-making

  • Led development of news products, collaborating with tech team and leadership

TEACHING

2015-2022

Lecturer, Digital Journalism

University of Applied Sciences

Vienna, Austria

  • Taught highly popular courses on fact-checking to combat viral misinformation, audience engagement, newsroom innovation and video strategy

EDUCATION

2010-2014

BA in Political Science​
University of Innsbruck, Austria

  • Thesis on the role of language in International Relations, focusing on speeches by former U.S. president Barack Obama

RECOGNITIONS & AWARDS

2019
 

  • Walther Rode Prize for coverage of the 'Ibiza affair'

  • CNN Digital Leadership Fellow in Atlanta and New York

2015
 

  • 30 best Austrian journalists under 30

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