22 Years ago today, I registered WNYMedia.net.
The concept was simple: build a place where people could tell stories, share opinions, challenge the status quo, and give people a voice.
When I registered WNYMedia.net in November 2004, YouTube didn’t exist. Facebook was still a college-only network, Twitter was two years away, and the idea that ordinary people could create, publish, and distribute their own news and media was still relatively new.
But that was exactly what excited me about the internet. The ability to give people a voice without needing a printing press, a television station, or permission from someone who owned one.
Blogs changed how people communicated, and local journalism didn’t have to belong exclusively to newspapers, television stations, or the people who could afford to own them. Anyone with something meaningful to say deserved an opportunity to be heard.
Over the years, WNYMedia became home to bloggers, journalists, political writers, photographers, activists, and ordinary people who cared enough about Buffalo and Western New York to get involved in something. We covered elections, questioned elected officials, challenged conventional thinking, supported community organizations, and pissed more than a few people off along the way.
Since then, the internet has changed dramatically and with it, we lost something along the way.
Independent voices were swallowed up by social media feeds. Local newsrooms have shrunk to practically nothing. Community conversations have become even more fragmented, and algorithms continue to divide us rather than bring us together.
Success is measured in clicks, followers, and impressions instead of conversations, connections, and community.
In a lot of ways, over the last 22 years, we’ve simply recreated the same problems that existed with traditional media. People, organizations, and media companies have retreated into their own little corners of the internet, protecting their platforms, competing for attention, and shouting into the ether instead of actually talking to one another.
Now, whatever meaningful conversations are left get buried beneath an endless stream of AI-generated video content, manufactured outrage, and videos of talking cats and dogs.
We’ve never had more ways to communicate, yet somehow we’ve made it harder than ever to actually connect.
And that’s exactly what WNYMedia was created to challenge.
WNYMedia was built on the concept of collaboration, not competition. The idea that independent voices could accomplish more by working together than by operating in isolation. That sharing audiences, ideas, resources, and stories could strengthen everyone involved without anyone having to surrender their independence or identity.
It was never about owning every story, controlling the conversation, or building paywalls around our own little piece of the internet.
It was about connecting dots. Bringing people together. Giving good ideas and important stories a platform, regardless of where they originated.
That’s why I believe WNYMedia matters more today than it did 22 years ago. And it’s a big part of why I’ve spent the last couple of months working tirelessly to rebuild that original vision into something that makes sense for the world we live in today.
Not simply redesigning a website or updating some technology, but rethinking how a community-driven media network can actually work in 2026.
Independent journalists covering stories that might otherwise go unnoticed. Community organizations trying to reach beyond their existing supporters. Photographers and videographers documenting what’s happening around us. Local businesses, musicians, artists, and neighborhood advocates who have something meaningful to contribute but don’t necessarily have the resources or audience to get noticed.
I continue to be a strong believer that curation is just as important as creation.
Finding good journalism, giving proper credit, sharing worthwhile reporting, and directing people to the original source isn’t somehow less valuable than producing everything yourself. It’s how you build a stronger, more informed community.
Jeff Jarvis, who has spent decades challenging the traditional thinking around new media and journalism, summed it up perfectly way back in 2007:
“Do what you do best. Link to the rest.”
That philosophy has still stuck with me all these years. The idea that we don’t need to write every article, shoot every photograph, produce every video, or pretend we are the only ones doing the work.
We need to recognize the people who are already out there doing the work, help amplify their voices, connect their audiences, and build something bigger together.
A place that doesn’t just publish its own work but helps people discover the work of others. That gives credit where it’s due, sends audiences back to original sources, encourages collaboration, and makes it easier for people to participate in the community around them.
So over the next few months, you’re going to see a lot of changes at WNYMedia.net.
More curation and collaboration with the people and organizations already doing meaningful work in Western New York. More original journalism, reporting, photography, and video. And just as importantly, more tools and resources that make it easier for people to participate themselves.
The tools available today make it possible to do things that would have required an entire newsroom when we started WNYMedia in 2004. Whether that’s sharing a story, contributing an article, submitting an event, documenting something happening in their neighborhood, or simply helping connect others to information worth knowing, we want to make participation as easy and accessible as possible.
That is the next chapter of WNYMedia. It isn’t about trying to recreate something that used to be. It’s about taking what worked back then and continuing to build something useful today.
WNYMedia will never be the biggest voice in the room. We never wanted to be.
But if we can help make your voice a little louder, get your story heard, or connect you with people doing good things in this community, then I’ll consider that a success.
That’s what WNYMedia was built to do 22 years ago, and that’s what I’m working to make it again.
After all, that’s what community journalism is supposed to be about.
