As founding editor of LoneStarLive.com, I invested extensive time shaping our news strategy. The work here reflects projects I directly managed with the talented team, all designed to grow a loyal, engaged audience that supports a sustainable news business. These projects highlight my commitment to creating the helpful, interesting, and innovative storytelling that drives both community impact and reader revenue.

Strategy: Outflanking competitors on the Texas voucher bill with human-centered reporting

“They make movies about Texas football.”

A high school football coach told LoneStarLive.com when asked about the potential impact vouchers and other legislation could have on high school sports.

As a startup publication, we lacked the resources to compete with legacy outlets on day-to-day coverage of the Texas school voucher bill. I set a strategy to focus on unique, human-centered angles that would illustrate the bill’s impact on communities with a focus on high school sports and homeschooling — two institutions that make up a unique part of Texas’ zeitgeist.

Several public high school coaches expressed concerns that Texas’ football culture faced an imminent threat from vouchers and other other proposed policy changes from the Texas legislature.

On the homeschooling and religious front, we illustrated the complexity of the issue by profiling a religious group’s stand against vouchers and highlighted concerns some parents had about taking money from the government.

While investigating opinions among homeschooling families, we discovered that one of the most popular curriculums in the state is created by an entity associated with a conservative Christian college in Florida. I worked with reporter Emily Topping on a story that detailed the experiences of former students while providing behind-the-scenes access to the school as our reporter went undercover as a potential student.

Our social video detailing five rules at the college became a centerpiece of our engagement strategy for the story and was one of the most-shared news videos for the LoneStarLive.com team on social media.

Innovation: Using generative AI to tell the rest of the story

Texas lawmakers in 2019 accidentally created a loophole that allowed the sale of products containing delta-8 THC. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made it his priority to eradicate this loophole and place further restrictions on hemp and marijuana in Texas. We used generative AI to sort through and categorize nearly 400 public comments submitted to the state regarding its consumable hemp program. This allowed our small news team to categorize, organize and distill the comments, which formed the basis for a viral video we produced on THC in Texas and a Q&A on state marijuana laws.

Investigation: From trending story to yearlong probe of a megachurch

When Austin Stone, one of Austin’s largest and most influential churches, terminated Aaron Ivey, a longtime worship leader, for inappropriate contact with several males, including one minor, most Texas publications aggregated the news and quickly moved on to other trending stories. LoneStarLive.com reporter Giavanni Alves kept digging and discovered that Aaron Ivey’s wife, Jamie Ivey, was aninfluential author and podcaster. We profiled Jamie Ivey and her life after Aaron’s scandal, which resulted in more than 700,000 pageviews.

Serving as the lead projects editor, I worked with the team to file open records requests to better understand Austin Stone’s relationship with the Austin Independent School District since the church often rented space at public schools. These requests and reporting revealed that Aaron Ivey frequently led church services from one of Austin’s largest public high schools. Another series of records requests showed that the police chief responsible for Austin schools believed that the school district should investigate if abuse happened on school grounds. LoneStarLive.com was the only publication to pursue this institutional connection. Our reporting made the PTA and police chief aware of the allegations for the first time.

Project: Owning the ALDI-Winn-Dixie transition as a public service beat

While leading news operations for our sister site GulfLive.com, I saw an opportunity in ALDI’s purchase of Winn-Dixie to move beyond a simple business story and create a sustained public service beat. Instead of a one-day story, we provided coverage to own every angle of this transition for the community.

I worked with the reporter to cover the news from three distinct, audience-focused perspectives:

• Human impact: Profiling the anxiety of Winn-Dixie employees facing an uncertain future.
• Community interest: Providing readers with continuous updates on the Winn-Dixie transformations and efforts by some communities to stop the changes.
• Service journalism: Creating guides to help people navigate the new job application process.

Our comprehensive coverage generated more than 1 million pageviews in three months, with the majority of the audience driven by Google Search and Discover. By anticipating the public’s needs around a major event, we created helpful content that built trust and delivered measurable results. Overall, the reporter published 22 stories on the transition and received more than 100 emails from Floridians with questions about ALDI. 

Maximizing audience through viral storytelling

Recognizing a fast-moving viral opportunity that required immediate action, I personally pursued and wrote the story that became LoneStarLive.com’s first to surpass 100,000 page views. The owners of MadRat Toys created a social media storm on Reddit after they published photos of themselves clearing out the shelves of a local Costco of collectible Pokémon cards. I was the only media source able to secure an interview with the store owner and followed it up with a Q&A with a Pokémon cards expert to provide insights on the scandal.

When the 2024 solar eclipse path crossed directly over Texas, I identified a key safety and legal issue for the million-plus expected visitors: trespassing. I wrote this service journalism piece to proactively address the problem, securing an interview with a retired Texas game warden to provide authoritative, easy-to-understand advice on navigating private land.