Dispatch News. An Update. 01.20.26//

-> This time last year I posted my first video explainer ever on YouTube for Dispatch.

It was a story about the history of third spaces. It was one of the most nerve wracking moments for me in my adult life, I’ll be honest. The video took me close to a month, consisting of research, interviews, shooting b-roll, talking head (me, lol), editing, processing and even equipment purchases.

I had to reshoot my entire talking head portion twice. I would literally sweat and get frustrated. I couldn’t remember the information I was trying to report on, or the point I was even trying to make, or what the direction of the story was even supposed to be. It was such a large topic that needed the space to grow. It needed TIME. The issue was, I was putting my energy in all of the wrong places to push it forward. What made it frustrating for me was that I actually HAD spent a lot of time on it. I mean, a month on one piece is not nothing. But it was broken up over months. An interview here, some research there. I wasn't using any of the project/time management I know I have to organize and shape what I wanted it to actually be. Long story short, I ended up rushing it in the end and pushing it out sooner than it should of been.

Somehow, that explainer ended up being 47 minutes long, and to this day has 68 views and 6 likes on YouTube.

It’s not that it performed bad… I had somewhere around 20 subscribers at the time so barring some overnight success story, it was never going to. It’s that I spent a month on something that ended up not being all that good. In fact when I look back on it, I realize how actually terrible it was. But the important piece of all of this was that it set in motion the dream I’d had for a long time, and that was to make Dispatch a reality.

Since then I have produced 20 videos for YouTube. That doesn’t include anything I put on TikTok or Substack. I’m really fucking proud of that. I've swapped set backgrounds, camera, lightning, and audio equipment, story telling styles, platform choices, and more. I never thought I’d end up putting out that much content. The main reason being that these days I have a very full and busy life. I have a job, relationship, and other interests keep my time pretty well accounted for. I also have to sleep at some point, too.

As I've checked off the list of big issue like the anxiety being in front of a camera, how to build stories and do interviews, what format I was want to have this all be in, find the time to do everything, and god knows what else, there has been one thing that has definitely been the biggest issue. That is WHERE I want to put all of this work. A month ago I would have said Substack, the month before that YouTube. Before that, TikTok. And so on.

If you'd of asked me that question of where do I want this all to go, which platform is right for me, I would have been in some ways telling a lie. Because what I was really wanting was a place of my own to call home. I don’t want to live and die my algorithm, as much as I can control it. I don’t want to fight to best the latest trend, or get crazy amount of followers or views. I don’t have any need or want to reinvent the wheel. I just want to tell important stories and do it well. Maybe if I’m lucky, a career comes from that. But if it never does, at least I’m doing something to combat what an absolute fuck show this country‘s current chapter is.

I was a photojournalist for 12 years. Having that experience and a camera in my hand since I was 14 years old has been the coolest journey. I dreamed of it. I fought my father for the newspapers every day. At one point we even had morning and afternoon papers sent to us from the same paper. I looked at every photograph of those papers, every chance I could get. I learned the names of the photographers and eventually started showing up to random local events hoping I could learn something by taking pictures and watching them take theirs.

Cameras have always been my ticket to access. Access to the powerful, the talented. Access to the small business owner, the protestor, the celebrity. The person going through it, or the community rebuilding after a tragedy. Hope and tragedy. Being able to witness it all has always been the dream. Doing it with a camera has been even cooler.

The media landscape has shifted so much even since I started in 2009. But one thing remains the same and that’s that we always need story. We need information. It’s critical to us as a whole. It’s critical for a functioning and healthy democracy.

A few years after leaving journalism for what I thought was permanently, I saw an alert come through about the Russian invasion into Ukraine. I realized then as I was on my phone and getting alerts, that I needed to try and find a way to continue my career as a journalist in some way or fashion. It took awhile to get there, but last year I started Dispatch. I’ve used a lot of platforms and toyed with a lot of formats (video, explainers, photos, etc.) and I’ve landed on Beehiiv as a hopeful solution to centralize most of what I’m doing in hopes I can jump start my second chapter in journalism. I built the website and newsletter to my own needs and liking. From the color, to the 8-bit inspired font, to what will eventually be explainers and reports.

Here is what you can expect from this website/newsletter moving forward:

Thanks for tuning in. More to come.