Editorial: Why I Started The Georgia Gazette

Editor’s Note: This editorial was written by Matt Sayle, Publisher of The Georgia Gazette. It was not reviewed or edited by newsroom staff and reflects his personal views, not necessarily those of the company as a whole.

Most news organizations today have one thing in common: they decide what’s important – not you.

They tell you what to care about, how to feel, what to be outraged over, and which stories matter – based on their own priorities, not yours.

That’s exactly why I started – or revived – The Georgia Gazette.

In many small towns across Georgia, our coverage is the only real news residents get. I know – I live in one. The local “newspaper” here is little more than a bulletin for the commissioners and the school board. When I started out, my focus was on serving my own community – providing real, objective, unfiltered news.

It exploded.

Today, The Georgia Gazette is viewed more than 15 million times a month.

Because when you give people unfiltered access to the truth, they notice.

We don’t decide what’s worth paying attention to. We show you what’s happening and let you decide for yourself. If a neighbor gets arrested, you deserve to know. If a deputy violates policy, you deserve to know. If the courthouse quietly drops charges in a case everyone forgot about, you deserve to know that, too.

We believe in facts. We believe in records. And most of all, we believe in your right to see the full story – whether it’s flattering or not.

Some take issue with that. They say:

• People are wrongfully arrested, and our reporting hurts them.
• People are arrested for “minor” crimes like marijuana possession, and we shouldn’t post those.
• People are innocent until proven guilty – we should wait until conviction.

Let’s talk about each of those.

First – whether we report it or not, the arrest still happened. Hiding it doesn’t protect anyone. In fact, our spotlight often helps fix what’s broken. Law enforcement – and people in general – behave differently when they know someone is watching. Public outcry is a feature, not a bug. We need to fix the message, not the messenger.

And when someone is falsely arrested, and we can prove it, nobody yells louder than we do. We often give people the only voice they’ll ever get. There’s no profit in these stories for big media – just time, cost, and risk. But we do it anyway. Take our Woodstock Police Department story. It cost far more to obtain the records than we could ever earn from publishing them. But the victim deserved to be heard – so we told her story.

Second – we’ve heard the argument that some arrests are too “minor” to report. But the real question isn’t whether a charge is big or small – it’s whether the system is working the way it should. Our reporting sheds light on that, too. And honestly – who decides what’s too minor to matter? We think that decision should be yours.

Finally, on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” nobody believes in that more than we do. But due process doesn’t mean the public should be left in the dark. We never say someone is guilty unless they are convicted. We don’t even imply it. We report the charge, the source, and the facts as they appear in public records.

In cases of domestic violence or stalking, this information can be life-saving. A lot of harm can be done while a suspect is out on bond. The community deserves to know who’s been accused and what the allegation is – not after the verdict, but when the risk is real.

This isn’t about shaming people. It’s about accountability, transparency, and public safety.

That belief doesn’t make us many friends in government, in traditional media circles – or really anywhere, for that matter.

Why Most Newspapers Can’t Report Like This

Many newspapers depend heavily on two things:

Legal ads
Corporate advertisers

Legal ads – public notices like foreclosures, court summons, and open meetings – make up a massive share of revenue for the “official” legal organs in Georgia counties. And when you’re the legal organ, you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Ask Albert Scardino, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor who revived The Georgia Gazette in the late 1970s – two centuries after James Johnston first founded it in 1763 as Georgia’s very first newspaper. Scardino’s version shut down in 1985 after Chatham County pulled its legal ads, cutting off 60% of the paper’s revenue and leaving no financial way forward.

They didn’t silence him with a lawsuit.
They didn’t threaten him.
They just pulled their money.

That’s how real journalism gets strangled – quietly, and without consequence.

How We’re Different

We don’t rely on legal ad revenue.
We don’t rely on advertisers who want to influence our reporting.
And we never will.

Whether it’s a small local boutique or a major national brand, we make our position clear from the start: entering an advertising relationship does not mean you get a say in what we report or how we report it. If that’s a problem, we don’t want your money.

Our independence lets us report with one priority: the truth. Fact-first, bias-free, and on your terms. We’ve walked away from ad deals before – and we won’t hesitate to do it again if editorial pressure comes into play.

Our most valuable support comes from readers who choose to become subscribers. That’s why subscribers never see a single ad. When our readers back us directly, we don’t need advertisers. The steady growth of our subscriber base tells us we’re doing something right.

When the Truth Makes Enemies

But that independence comes at a cost.

Over the years, people who didn’t like what we reported have tried just about everything to shut us down.

I’ve received death threats – not just to me, but to my family.
Strangers have shown up where I live.
We’ve been sued – multiple times – with lawsuits that were laughable at best. Not a single one has succeeded, nor would they.

These cases weren’t filed to win. They were filed to waste our time, tie up our resources, and try to scare us into silence. That didn’t work either, and never will. We’ll be breaking down those lawsuits in a future editorial.

And when legal threats don’t work, there’s always the media smear campaign.

About That WSB-TV “Exposé”

WSB-TV called us clickbait.

Let’s talk about that.

When a booking photo recently went viral because the subject happened to be attractive, WSB posted it repeatedly across their platforms – chasing clicks and boosting engagement – doing the very thing they accused us of doing.

That is clickbait. And that’s all they’ve got.

Their “investigation” wasn’t journalism. It was an attack on a competitor. A sloppy, shallow hit piece dressed up as concern for the public.

They claimed the address we used on our state registration was actually “a smoothie shop.” The reality? In our early days, we rented a small suite in a commercial building. The main tenant happened to be a smoothie shop. There’s nothing unusual about that. Nothing deceptive. Nothing remotely illegal.

Their proof? Asking a teenage cashier where The Georgia Gazette was. Naturally, she had no idea. That was their big “gotcha.” Never spoke with the owner. Never asked for a manager. Why bother? They got the answer they were looking for. Why keep digging?

To justify their 8-hour round trip, they showed up at a house they claimed was mine.

It wasn’t. I lived miles away, in a completely different part of town.

After the story aired, I asked them to issue a retraction – not for my sake, but to protect the people who actually lived there. I provided clear proof that I didn’t reside at that address.

They declined to correct the record. Admitting they were wrong is bad for business.

And the people who lived there paid the price. They faced harassment. Pizzas sent to their door. Fake Craigslist listings. Power washers showing up and cleaning the entire house based on bogus service orders. They had to involve law enforcement to get it to stop.

That’s the kind of damage fake reporting like WSB-TV’s causes.

They also claimed we ignore Georgia’s mugshot removal law. That’s false. We comply fully – and we go further. We process dozens of qualified removal requests every day. And we offer a Second Chance Policy that lets people request removals even when we’re not legally required to do so.

We also provide a convenient form on our website to save the requester the cost and aggravation of mailing a legally required takedown request.

We don’t call anyone a criminal. We post public records – the same ones WSB uses when it fits their agenda.

One More Thing

WSB also made a point to mention that I’ve been arrested.

They’re right. I have.

Fifteen years ago, I was arrested and convicted of a DUI. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I was wild and reckless in my early twenties. That moment forced me to grow up. I was guilty. I didn’t make excuses. I didn’t blame anyone else.

And yes, my name and mugshot were published in the local paper the next day.

Never once did I threaten that newsroom. Never once did I show up at a journalist’s house. Never once did I demand they stop reporting the facts.

Because accountability doesn’t work one way. It applies to all of us – including me.

The Real Power Is Yours

You – our readers – are the reason this publication exists.
You decide what stories matter to you.
You decide which sections to follow.
You decide whether this kind of journalism survives.

We know we’re not for everyone. Some folks don’t like seeing their name in print. Some politicians don’t like being held accountable. And some newsrooms don’t like that we’re doing the work they gave up on years ago.

But that’s okay.
We didn’t build this for them.
We built it for you.

Until next time,
Matt Sayle
Publisher of The Georgia Gazette

If there’s something you’d like clarified, a concern you want addressed, or if you’re interested in submitting your own editorial (or rebuttal) for consideration, I invite you to reach out directly: Matt@TheGeorgiaGazette.com

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“Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed – and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment – the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution – not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply ‘give the public what it wants’ – but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate, and sometimes even anger public opinion.”

— President John F. Kennedy, 1961