TCB’s last issue: Staff reflections

Featured photo: Eric Ginsburg, Brian Clarey and Jordan Green. (photo by Carolyn de Berry)

While newspapers wouldn’t exist without its readers, the same could be said about its writers. Without the ones to find the stories, pitch them, craft them, ask the questions and then put pen to paper, we wouldn’t have a product to put on the stands each week.

Over the past 11 years, Triad City Beat has had the wonderful opportunity to be a home for writers to hone their craft and jumpstart their careers. Many of the people who have contributed to TCB have gone on to work at larger publications and keep up the work of journalism. We prided ourselves in not just being the “people’s paper,” but also the place where writers could get their first stories published.

And we want to thank each and every person who has ever contributed to TCB whether it was in words, design or pictures. The stories and the images are what made TCB unique. And for that, we are forever grateful.

Marielle Argueza (Reporter, 2024)

I was welcomed into Triad City Beat as a fellow to cover racial justice narratives and I only had four months to do it. One of the most important stories that I worked on during that short amount of time had to be my story on Faith Action Network’s municipal IDs. While I knew the existence of similar programs in other immigrant-dense cities, it was a fascinating crash course for me (as a non-native North Carolinian) to see how embedded and different immigrant communities were here versus other places I’ve covered like New York and California. There are a lot more political challenges and nuanced conditions I never thought of that could impede a program like this. It’s both frightening and empowering to see how much cities and their departments as well as independent nonprofits influence the lives of people who simply don’t have the right pieces of paper. 

I’m adding another story too because Triad City Beat was and is a small but mighty team doing the work of a robust news room and I got to be part of the experience covering the fight over what to do with the contaminated Bingham Park. I got to work side by side with fellow reporter Gale Melcher as we walked the streets knocking on doors to talk to Greensboro residents. We reported together again, when we attended a tense community meeting. The park had been contaminated for literal decades, and it was a great reminder that people are paying attention and do want to be involved with the decisions of their policymakers. 

Triad City Beat to me represents my time in North Carolina and introduction to reporting in the South. I’ve reported all over the country, but never in the South and I’m glad Triad City Beat was my guide to a nuanced region that most national publications consistently mischaracterize. It was good to be on an alt-weekly team again that was unafraid of holding the powerful to account and encouraged me to do the same, even as a newcomer. No one ever doubted my ability to do ambitious reporting, and I was empowered to dig deeper and use my past experiences as advantages. Triad City Beat is a rare team and a valiant effort to keep local news alive and residents civically engaged. 

I am currently freelancing for several local and national publications in New York City. 

Lauren Barber (Staff writer, 2017-19)

Writing for Triad City Beat showered my life with gifts beyond entry to cultural events — a greater sense of purpose and belonging, permission to view myself as a professional creative and incredible mentorship, to name a few. I am profoundly grateful for the camaraderie and professionalism that characterized TCB’s editorial room, as well as every minute spent interviewing brilliant artists, musicians and activists – particularly those like Debbie the Artist who boldly embody all three archetypes. 

These days, I provide childcare for several families and am an occasional contractor and volunteer for DanceSafe, a public health nonprofit that promotes health, safety and fulfilling experiences for people who use drugs and their communities. I am also breathing new life into my spiritual services business, Ace of Wands Energy, LLC, through which I offer Tarot and Akashic Records readings and Reiki energy healing. 

Carolyn de Berry (Photographer, 2014-25)

It’s nearly impossible for me to pick favorites after 11 years straight of making photos for TCB, but just this month our story on the Hot Mess Express reminded me how lucky I’ve been to do  this work. I’ve always loved photographing political events (Kamala Harris in front of 17,000 people and John Lewis at Bennett College are stand outs), but equally important to me has been documenting the landscape and the people who live here — parents and poets, protests and parties, teenagers demanding gun legislation, family members mourning lost loved ones, drive through graduations during Covid, and on and on. 

My happiest photographic accident: Close to deadline and out of ideas, I stumbled across folks relaxing in a truck bed pool on a city rooftop on a sweltering summer day. Sneaking my son into the weekly photo every year on his birthday has been a continued delight. I’m so grateful to TCB for all the opportunities, creative freedom and steadfast support over the years. I’ll miss this paper terribly, as a photographer, and as a reader, but I’m honored to have had my work in every single issue ever printed. Cheers to 11 years!

Brian Clarey (Co-founder, publisher, 2014-25)

It was never my dream to own a scrappy little newspaper. That came later. But since I was little, it had always been my dream to write. I loved words.I loved sentences. I loved anything that carried the written word from a writer’s head to a reader’s eyes. In childhood, before cable TV and video games came out, I devoured these things: my mother’s novels, my father’s newspapers, my grandparents’ old Life magazines — whatever I could get my hands on. 

It wasn’t until much later that I began making real sentences of my own.

It was tough for me to break into this business. I had no real mentors or allies in the beginning. Though I had yet to accomplish anything of substance, I carried a terrible arrogance, plus I looked like a freak and was kind of a drunk.

But I worked harder on my writing than I had ever worked at anything before, and I simply refused to quit, to “find something else,” or to “explore other options,” both pieces of advice I had gotten from people who meant well but just didn’t understand me.

A professional writer, they say, is an amateur who never quit. The same can be said of any creative endeavor. Never stop, and eventually you’ll get there. And so persistence, stubbornness and doggedness have been driving principles in my life.

I suppose that’s why I stayed with Triad City Beat for so many years, after the other founders peeled off, when it began to affect my family life, through the hardest years of my career as external forces and malevolent actors emaciated the business of journalism until it became unrecognizable from the thing I signed on to all those years ago.

All the things that I loved about newspapering — metro columns, experimental features, travel writing, profiles, slice-of-life pieces, reported opinion, relevant cultural coverage among them — have been scuttled to the wayside by most local news orgs, ostensibly to focus on the things that matter in a kind of civic triage. I’m talking about local government, which touches our lives on the daily: what our homes are worth, when our garbage gets picked up, what we do with the land we live on, how we enforce the law, taxes and how we spend them, schools and parks…. If you’re reading this I probably don’t have to tell you the importance of local government functions. And I probably don’t have to tell you that right now, in the Triad, no one is covering the school board.

That’s another reason I stayed so long: Someone in Triad media has to give a shit about this stuff. For a time it was me and, mostly, the people around me. TCB has always been a product of those who work there. Writers don’t get assignments; they give pitches. Editors have been largely free to follow their instincts without interference. Our content has always reflected this, shifting with the talents of those who make it happen. Most of it had very little to do with me; I just got everyone together in the room. 

That has been my favorite part of it all: the people in the room. 

In the beginning there were just four of us: me, Jordan Green, Eric Ginsburg and Jorge Maturino, our first employee. Together we defined TCB in those first few months with our content and design. We loaded it on the website and made it into weekly papers that we delivered ourselves, with some help from my dad.

We’ve had a few dozen folks come into the room since then, dropping in like individual elements that forever changed our chemistry, an 11-year experiment that got us to here, the end of the line. For me, anyway. As they’ve done since the beginning, when our folks leave the room they often find themselves in other rooms, ones with bigger markets and better pay and nicer furniture. So while the sun sets on TCB, the thing we made here will exist in those people, as well as anyone else who connected with our work and how we did it, which was the point of it all.

If we don’t do this, we thought, no one else will. But I believe that’s not true anymore. I believe in what we started here at TCB, and its power to endure. I believe in all of you who worked with us as we made our stand. I will miss you the most. 

Priya Dames (Freelancer, 2024)

TCB is a place where I grew so much as a reporter. I appreciate how the paper was committed to looking beneath the surface and finding niche stories. TCB courageously covered issues that would have otherwise gone unreported. 

My favorite story would have to be about the Revival Reimagined series that was taking place across North Carolina last August. It felt like an important story to tell considering the upcoming election. I found such a dense network of activists, religious leaders, and artists who were committed to protecting their communities which was really inspirational. 

I will be training to become a librarian-archivist in the fall. I can’t wait to use the passion for storytelling that I explored at TCB in my library work. 

James Douglas (Freelancer, columnist, 2019-24)

The “In the Weeds” column let me voice all of the joys and frustrations of service work. I later ventured into writing culture pieces, chasing news stories and covering politics. 

My favorite article isn’t a bar piece, though. It was a news story I covered about the local school board. It felt like real journalism, tracking it down and sourcing it. It felt like I was doing something worthwhile. I was addicted.

Sayaka, Brian and crew supported me, helped me grow to be a better writer and always, ALWAYS, encouraged me. They still do, and I am eternally grateful.

For the past year, I have been learning much about bar ownership after taking over the dive bar I worked at when I wrote “In the Weeds;” The Silver Moon Saloon in Downtown Winston-Salem. 

I will always be thankful for the remarkable influence TCB has had on my professional and personal life. 

Luca Ettinger (Intern, freelancer, 2018-20)

You can build yourself through writing.

In October 2019, I wrote my favorite story with Triad City Beat, about a quartet of transgender clergy members of North Carolina.

About two months later, I’d inject my first dose of testosterone.

Triad City Beat not only allowed me a space to grow into a better writer, but showed me I didn’t have to settle for workplaces that misgender or deadname me. With that assurance, I felt confident meeting people, interviewing strangers, and writing stories about it all.

Since then, I moved to Brooklyn, where I’ve gotten married and work at a print studio. My journalism experience shapes my current writing practice of poetry and essay.

Local stories from independent writers remain vital, even as print papers close. I hope everyone involved in TCB keeps creating wherever they may be, and every supporter keeps engaging.

We can build each other up with writing.

Suzy Fielders (Freelancer, 2022)

My favorite TCB article I wrote was on the formula storage that occurred in 2022. This was my favorite piece to write as I loved talking with local parents and medical experts. Plus, I was expecting my second daughter at the time so was potentially helpful information for myself!

I loved that TCB told all stories and focused on inclusion and diversity. I’m proud to have been a part of this news team!

I’m currently writing for several local publications and handles marketing for local small businesses.

Luis H. Garay (Freelancer, 2022-24)

I joined TCB when I was still new-ish to Greensboro and finding people to connect with. It also instilled possibility in me, I didn’t know I could be a freelance writer until Sayaka reached out to me and guided me through the process. I owe TCB so much.

Hands down my favorite story was the panaderías of the Triad story. I was able to blend my cultural upbringing and think about panaderías as spaces of community and connection for me and other Latine people. Plus, driving 171 miles across the Triad helped me learn more about our incredible, diverse areas. It also won a national award!

I am currently in a PhD program at UNCG in their Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations department while maintaining a full-time job and being a Greensboro food content creator (IG: @eatswithluis)

Eric Ginsburg (Co-founder, 2014-17)

I’ve always said that the Triad is the kind of place that’s brimming with culture and stories, but you have to be willing to dig beneath the surface. That’s what Triad City Beat has done for over a decade, acting as that local guide and bringing the region to life. What a privilege and joy it was to be a part of it for those first four years. Other than being a parent, it’s the best job I’ve ever held because of the creative freedom, importance of the work, and opportunity to make a difference. The Triad won’t be the same without TCB.

I will soon be managing editor at 6AM City, a newsletter company that includes the WS Today. I’m also a freelance food writer.

Jordan Green (Co-founder, senior editor, 2014-21)

Triad City Beat started with a business plan by Brian Clarey after he was fired from his position as editor of Yes! Weekly on Election Day in 2013, leaving me and Eric Ginsburg to run the news operation. Brian invited me and Eric to join him at the new venture, and shortly afterwards we tendered our resignations. Within a space of less than two months, we pooled our funds, refurbished some newspaper boxes, and put out the first issue in February 2014.

I remember Brian telling me that the 21^st century was getting a late start, and 2014 was the true beginning of the new century. We felt confident that it was our time.

He was right, but not in the way either of us thought. We drew up a mission statement that focused on small cities as hubs of innovation, embracing a very Obama-esque idea that entrepreneurship could lift all boats. Within two years, my view on that would shift. The data and reporting on real people’s lives would make it abundantly clear that gentrification is driving a widening gulf between a small wealthy elite and a growing swath of the population that struggles to gain an economic foothold.

Still, the spirit that animated our coverage in those early years was the promise of liberation, with the experiences of a widening cross-section of humanity enriching the shared life of our cities.

We witnessed the explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement with the killing of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in that first year, and much of Triad City Beat’s coverage turned towards police abuses and racial profiling. The Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision the following year upholding the right to same-sex marriage leant validation to our pro-LGBTQ+ editorial stance, and our coverage helped push the burgeoning consciousness surrounding trans rights that came into sharp focus with the backlash against the 2016 law rushed through the General Assembly to ban trans people from using public bathrooms in accordance with their gender.

The zeitgeist of Donald Trump’s first election in 2016 did not throw us off our trajectory towards a more inclusive and equitable editorial agenda. The cover of our first issue after the election displayed a photo of Trump, accompanied by the text, “God help us.” A collage of historical demagogues and authoritarians, including Joseph R. McCarthy, George Wallace, Jesse Helms and Adolf Hitler loomed in the background. 

The cover had been drawn up in advance by Jorge Maturino, our art director, but when the results came in, a dispute emerged, with one faction of our staff insisting that we had agreed this was the cover we would use in the event that Trump won, while the other faction argued that we hadn’t really given serious consideration to the possibility that he could win. Fortunately, the right side of the debate — if not the right candidate — won out.

The first Trump election actually had the effect of boosting an oppositional progressive culture in the city halls, neighborhoods and college campuses across the Triad. The #MeToo movement in the fall of 2017 prompted a nationwide reckoning over the ways power and privilege shape relationships in workplaces. This revaluation helped spur investigations by Triad City Beat that exposed sexual abuse by prominent figures in the community. 

Similarly, by the time of Trump’s first election, an inquest into the institutional legacy of white supremacy was well underway across North Carolina. Although I can’t remember Triad City Beat devoting significant coverage to it, the name of Charles B. Aycock, the white supremacist governor who ushered in the Jim Crow era in North Carolina, was stripped from a UNCG building in 2016, followed by a Greensboro middle school and neighborhood in 2017 and a street in 2019. 

More dramatically, from the vantage point of Triad City Beat’s coverage and community passions, the city of Winston-Salem removed a Confederate monument in 2019, as part of a ripple effect following a deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va. two years earlier.

But looking back, the ground was already shifting in ways that I didn’t fully appreciate during the late Obama era when Triad City Beat started. We didn’t cover the Gamergate controversy in 2014 and 2015 because it wasn’t directly relevant to our local readership. But the seeds of the ascendant MAGA-techbro alliance now in firm control of the federal government and seeking to purge DEI, “wokism” and Black history from every institution were there in 2014 and 2015, when young white men launched a campaign of harassment against women game developers to reclaim what they viewed as a cultural preserve of maleness.

Similarly, the deadly white supremacist massacre at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. struck me as anomalous in 2015, but in hindsight it looks more like a harbinger of the terrorism and extremism to come.

Beginning around the time of the 2016 presidential campaign, Triad City Beat nurtured my interest in right-wing extremism coverage and allowed me space to pursue freelance reporting. A 2019 story I wrote about violent threats to disrupt a Winston-Salem concert by the Tuareg band Tinariwen was re-published by Raw Story. That led to freelancing for the national online news outlet, where I now work as staff investigative reporter.

My view on this may be skewed by the fact that I left Triad City Beat in early 2021, but for me the newspaper’s finest moment came in 2020. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, then racial justice protests against the murder of George Floyd, and finally the rising political violence surrounding the election, our reporters and editors put in countless hours, often dropping everything at a moment’s notice to cover a protest.

I’m sad to see the closure of Triad City Beat, but only a little bit. I’ve always believed that the beating heart of journalism is the working reporters, not the institutions. Good journalism has always been a labor of love and a public service, not a profit center. I only hope that going forward we can figure out how to pay a living wage to the local reporters keeping an eye on the ground truth.  

Anthony Harrison (Intern, sports writer, 2015-17)

My tenure as a sportswriter for Triad City Beat counts as my favorite position I’ve yet held in my professional life.

TCB lays claim to the best writing I’ve ever done. I wrote everything from quick listicles and unsolicited endorsements to three cover stories, and much in between about sports and leisure, food and drink, arts and politics.

But perhaps my favorite article for TCB was the final entry in my series on the Carolina Panthers’ 2015-2016 season ― an ultimately tragic post-mortem on Super Bowl 50, “Tears.” I found myself groping to describe the universal sensation of eating crow. By necessity, I wrote it immediately after the Panthers’ defeat in that game, in the moment as I felt all that pain and disappointment, but it came to me easily enough.

The best pieces always do.

I wish the best to all my TCB comrades. We did something great and will keep doing so.

Billy Ingram (Freelancer, 2014)

I remember it like it was yesterday, which is to say I barely remember it at all.

On a Friday in July of 2014, I conducted an interview with a long-time, very influential downtown Greensboro restaurateur, Minas Dascalakis, who had immigrated as a young man to the United States from Greece in 1949. This I undertook even though, at that time, I didn’t have any reliable outlet for local scribblings but the old man was dying so I jumped at the chance to hear his tales about downtown Greensboro from the 1950s forward as witnessed from behind the counter of Matthew’s Grill, next door to the O. Henry Hotel on North Elm.

Arriving home from this amazing encounter, before I even had time to light my pipe, my Nokia began vibrating. It was Brian Clarey on the line, stuck for a cover story for the next issue of his new weekly.

I had contributed a few articles during that first year of TCB, gratis, as a gesture of support. I recall my story about Aunt Bee’s cat house in Siler City eliciting a sour reaction from that small town’s folk. Another column in 2014, about my experience in college with then Governor Pat McCrory, must have ruffled feathers in Raleigh because the following Saturday a gleaming, like-new trash truck pulled up to the back of my residence where the driver emptied both the trash and recycling bins into the pristine well of that truck then drove off to who knows where. The same thing happened the next weekend, weird huh?

Over the phone, Brian agreed that Dascalakis’ recollections would make for an interesting story. Wasn’t going to pay anything (again) but the notion that this revered restaurateur’s story would appear within his limited lifespan was impossible to resist. I told Brian I’d have 2,500 words to him on Monday, the magazine dropped on Thursday, Dascalakis passed away very soon after.

Plucky little publication. In the world of magazines, especially the great ones, an 11-year run is considered a rousing success. Spy Magazine, for example, lasted only a year longer. Clarey was the founding editor of Yes! Weekly in 2005 before co-founding TCB in 2014, both serving as significant launching pads for a number of important voices, his being one of them.

Can’t say I know (or knew) the guy more than superficially but will confess to always admiring the fuck out of Brian Clarey. So much so, once again working for free goddammit, it would be considered an honor if TCB chooses to publish these musings. Only fitting if this too pisses somebody off.

Autumn Karen (Freelancer, 2022-24)

ISO: A Community Paper We Needed

GIVE: Beautiful vase my sister gave me but I don’t have any use for. Seeking a loving home.

Porch pickup only.

ISO: Side Table with drawer.

GIVE: Box of granola bars that my kids didn’t like – two missing. Porch pickup in Irving Park.

I met Sayaka Matsuoka through the local Buy Nothing group on Facebook during the pandemic. When the world shuttered itself to preserve itself, the online trading group became a lifeline for human connection. As a single mom during lockdown trying to get work done while guiding three kids through virtual school, I found community in trading jackets, snacks, side tables, and plants back and forth across porches. The community grew through posts and comments.

ISO stands for “in search of”, and folks posted regularly about their needs for everything from school supplies to toys. More common were GIVES, where people let go of things that they didn’t need in favor of a new home that did need them. Sayaka wrote a wonderful piece on Buy Nothing and its tremendous community in TCB later.

After moving to Greensboro as a single mom in the wake of a messy divorce in 2018, I didn’t have a community. My brothers and my mom lived here, but we were all from a small town east called Roanoke Rapids and I had no roots in the Triad. I had to redefine myself as a person in the world and as a writer.

Triad City Beat built me up on both fronts.

Out of Buy Nothing, Sayaka and I became Facebook friends. She came to speak to my adjunct class on ghostwriting in the Honors College at UNCG. Before I knew it, she and Brian were interviewing me to be a contributor. My fingers fidgeted frantically out of view on that Zoom.

Though I’d been a professional writer for a decade, that was in books and online as a freelancer. I’d never done journalism or worked with an editor. I was terrified.

They nurtured me as a writer. They built my confidence. They gave me a professional community at a time that I was utterly lost. I can confidently say that TCB changed my life. My current position as a faculty member at a local university is due in huge part to the credentials and skill I built at TCB. My son will go to college tuition free at a great school in New York because of that job. I got into grad school at UNCSA in large part because of their incredible ability to foster growth in my writing.

The work they allowed me to do echoes through the lives of the people whose stories they published, but on a personal level for me and my kids, we would not be here without them.

It’s strange how it all started with jackets and plants on a Facebook group. But Sayaka and Brian both have that magic about them. We needed Triad City Beat. I needed it.

Sudarshan Krishnamurthy (Freelancer, 2024)

To me, TCB has lived up to its name of being ‘the people’s paper. It has always felt like the paper’s focus has been to highlight the voices of folks from the margins — the folks whose voices are often left unheard through mainstream news. Its focus on pieces that highlighted local community organizing and activism was what made me want to write for TCB, and its absence in the Triad will be deeply felt.

My favorite TCB story that I wrote was about ‘What Da Pho’, a family-run Vietnamese restaurant in Winston-Salem. This was special, in part, because it was my first time ever writing for a news outlet along with my first time writing for TCB. It was initially a nerve-wracking experience, but my nerves were calmed by a warm bowl of pho as I interviewed Xia and his family. Like many of the other incredible individuals I’ve written about for TCB, this piece has resulted in a lasting friendship with Xia, Anna, and their son, Xander. On that note, go visit Xia’s new restaurant in Winston-Salem, Xia’s Asian Tapas!

I’m an MD-PhD Student at Wake Forest, and I still have a few years left in my education. I’ll be around in the Triad for that time, continuing to visit my favorite haunts!

Sayaka Matsuoka (Intern, staff writer, managing editor, 2014, 2018-25)

When I first started working at Triad City Beat back in late 2014, I had no idea what journalism was or what it entailed. I could never have anticipated the heartbreaks, the joys, the never-ending river of stories that come from the job.

I was a freshly graduated college kid looking for the next thing to do when I found an ad for editorial interns at this new paper. I thought, why not?, and gave it a go. At the time, I had no idea that applying for the position and working at TCB would change my life forever.

For the next five months, I learned the many ins and outs of the trade. How to source a story, how to write a lede, a kicker, a scene. I learned how to make public records requests and the difference between a city council and a county commission. I learned about word count, deadlines, quick turns. I learned the difference between a feature, a news and an opinion piece. I learned that this is what I want to do forever.

Since returning to TCB in 2018, I’ve seen the many iterations that the paper has gone through. As a scrappy, small newsroom, Triad City Beat has always taken on the identity of the people who have worked here. In the beginning, when it was mostly Brian, Eric and Jordan running the joint, the pages were filled with long cover stories about the cities, Eric’s columns about local food and drink and Jordan’s investigations into right-wing extremists. When I started taking over the editorial side a few years back, we began shifting deeper into the racial component of the cities, which all came to a head in 2020 with the pandemic and the reckoning wrought by George Floyd’s murder. In the years since, we’ve doubled down on our civics reporting with stories that chronicle the ins and outs of city government in a way that has been lost in many of our other local publications.

What I mean to say is that things have changed.

In the last 11 years, Triad City Beat has shifted, evolved, warped, even, to fit the needs of the community and reflect back the things that have been going on here. And that’s what made this paper great.

The willingness and flexibility that it had to always put the communities it covered first above all else.

So this may feel like a sad thing that’s happening. An ending. A death.

But actually, if you really think about it, we’re not losing the core of this paper — its stories.

And that’s because the stories weren’t created by us. Sure, we found them, pitched them, transcribed them, wrote them, edited them and published them. But the stories were never about us. They were about you. We were simply the vessel.

A paper doesn’t exist without things to cover, the people and places that make a community.

And that’s why no matter what, the things that made Triad City Beat what it is will continue, because you will continue.

Often, when I tell people that I’m a journalist, people respond with, “Wow, that must be tough.”

And sure, it is. But more than anything it is the thing that gives me hope.

In the years I have dedicated to working here, I have seen the most amazing and inspiring things.

Mothers coming together to demand justice for their kids. Women cleaning each other’s homes for free. People volunteering to teach yoga to refugees. Artists creating for the greater good. Workers advocating for better treatment for themselves and their peers. Communities fighting for access to healthcare. Neighbors protecting their neighbors.

It is impossible for me to stay despondent, discouraged or disengaged while doing this work. Instead, it is a salve.

Every story, every interview uncovers an aspect of humanity — which I still believe is good. And I have you to thank for that.

So even if Triad City Beat doesn’t exist to tell these stories, the work of journalism can, and is, being done by all of us. It happens when you tell someone about a new coffee shop that you love. It happens when you volunteer for a new organization, when you connect someone with resources, when you tell your friend about a beautiful moment you experienced during your day. Because journalism, at its core, is about storytelling. 

And stories are everywhere, all around us, always. 

We just have to take the time to look and listen.

Jorge Maturino (Art director, 2014-17)

I started at Triad City Beat before the first print and spent almost four years designing covers and layouts. Brian gave me so much freedom when designing the paper that it often didn’t feel like work. Working in such a small office it felt like family. Jordan was the dad that made sure things kept running, Eric was my brother from another mother and Brian was that crazy uncle…everyone has one of those. I miss those days. 

The cover I designed that was my favorite would be the Pay Day cover from August 3, 2017. LEGOs were a staple in my home growing up so incorporating that into a design was really fun and nostalgic. 

Currently, I am working with Cone Health as a Visual Designer on the Innovation team. I do extend my services outside of my full-time career on a freelance basis. 

Gale Melcher (CityBeat reporter, 2023-25) 

In December 2022, Brian and Sayaka took a chance on me, a kid with a biology degree and no reporting experience. During the job interview, Brian said something that has stuck with me. Along with no formal training as a reporter, I didn’t have a body of work behind me, so I didn’t have much “clay on the wheel.” 

He also said that was exactly what it takes to write. 

Just open up a blank document. 

Just put words on the page. 

Just get started. 

Brian and Sayaka gave me a chance to get started, and remembering those words keeps me going when I’m stuck.

As for my favorite story, I don’t have one. I can’t choose. It’s hard for me to do so because so many of the stories I’ve worked on are sad, and end with people not getting the result they wanted or they’re left in limbo. Bingham Park. Crystal Towers. Clifford Apartments. Willie Davis Drive. Free Palestine protests at universities, churches and city halls. The topic I’ve spent the most time writing about is housing, stories that led me to so many amazing and resilient people. It has been such a gift to spend time with the people who live at Crystal Towers; the majority of whom are elderly, Black, disabled and very poor.

As former vice president Hubert Humphrey said, “[T]he moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” And Pearl Buck wrote, “Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.” Remember that when your federal and local leaders say they don’t have enough money to help those living in the dawn, twilight and shadows.

It’s easy to feel indecisive and directionless in this job because there are so many ways to tell a story. And some days are really hard. Sometimes the job is depressing. Coming face to face with the hard truths of humanity is the most difficult part of it — not the writing.

Becoming a journalist has changed me. I’ve made a difference and I’ve made mistakes, but every day here has given me a chance to take some clay and sculpt a vessel. I’m so thankful for that.

Jonathan Michels (Freelancer, 2014-17)

For journalists like me, Triad City Beat represented the best of what alternative media has to offer. TCB gave us the opportunity to file reports and commentaries grounded in truth, backed up by facts and deep reportage. We were free to be irreverent both in style and substance. We wrote stories about topics no other mainstream publication dared to touch, including white supremacists and mass protests.

When I pitched a long-form article exposing the state’s shameful history of forced sterilization, TCB co-founder Brian Clarey graciously let the piece take up almost every inch of that week’s issue.

Despite the heaviness of these stories, TCB editors and designers were nonetheless able to make every issue punchy and fun to read.

Muckraking in the Triad will never be as stylish, fun or vital for the public good.

Nikki Miller-Ka (Food writer, 2019-21)

Writing for Triad City Beat changed my life. Some might call it luck; others might say it was destiny. For me, it was an invaluable opportunity to grow and learn. This “little alt-weekly that could” shaped my writing, leading to my most impactful story — the one that helped El Sabor Tabasqueño get a food truck — along with features in national publications and viral success.  

But more than that, TCB grounded me in the community where I grew up, showing me its heart from the inside out. Today, as senior food and wine editor at a luxury magazine in Southwest Florida, I carry that experience with me. It was an honor to contribute to the food history of our region.  

I’m deeply grateful to Brian Clarey for believing in me from day one. TCB will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’m proud to have been part of its story. 

Michaela Ratliff (Intern, freelancer, 2020-24)

“Hey Michaela, got time to talk this week?”

In 2020, I emailed several Triad publications in search of a job or internship, hoping one of them would take a chance on me. I stared in amazement as Brian Clarey, publisher of TCB at the time, was the only one who responded. I became the paper’s editorial intern, and later contributor.

‘Straw Into Gold’ highlights work of Rosa “Malikia” Johnson who braided Stevie Wonder and other greats, is my favorite story I’ve written not only because of its imagery, scene and details, but because of the experience I had writing the story. Viewing artifacts from someone who worked side-by-side with Stevie Wonder is an opportunity I would’ve likely never had if I wasn’t a contributor.

I’m currently a digital producer at FOX8 WGHP, a position I know I wouldn’t have if not for the nurturing and motivation I received at TCB. Grateful isn’t the word.

Courtney Singleton (Freelancer, 2024)

I fell in love with this publication due to its genuinely supportive atmosphere. When I published my first story with them, not only did it make the cover, but the whole TCB family were sure to join in the celebration of my success.

How could you ask a writer what their favorite story is? How cruel! Okay…If I must pick, I’ll say the story I did on the Artist Bloc’s 10th anniversary. It’s my mom’s favorite, so maybe knowing that makes me biased, but I didn’t know that’d be my last TCB story at the time.

Although the paper is ending, the relationships I’ve established within it have become everlasting. As a young emerging journalist, it is my hope that the techniques I’ve learned here will help me expand my network so that I may continue to educate and entertain the public on topics I am passionate about.

Aiden Siobhan (Art director, 2023-25)

When I lived in Winston-Salem, I would read the paper and do the crossword puzzle at Tate’s with my wife every Thursday. It’s a tradition I continued after moving away, and one I will miss so much! Designing for TCB has been an incredible experience, both because of our passionate team, and as an opportunity for me to give back to my community.

I have created many covers I am proud of in my time at Triad City Beat, but my favorite has to be for “Fired“, our June 8, 2023 issue. I had a striking photograph from Todd Turner and a great article from Gale to draw inspiration from, so I was able to create a compelling cover which had a big impact locally!

You can find me on Instagram @aiden.png or at my website aiden-png.myportfolio.com to learn more about what cool projects I’ll be working on next!

Joel Sronce (Sports columnist, 2016-17 )

Though choosing my favorite story was no easy task, I think I’ll have to go with “Maintaining a tradition,” a cover-story about the role that soccer plays in immigrant and refugee communities in Greensboro. In part it featured the work of three community-soccer organizers, three tireless stewards of the beautiful game.

The day that story was published, one of the organizers asked for the contact information of the other two, inspired through their connection and wanting to get together to see if a soccer tournament could be possible. Soon after, the four of us met with the City of Greensboro and were able to lay the groundwork for an eight-team tournament that took place in late July, 2017. Thankfully, I got to write about the tournament for TCB, too, and the tournament happened annually for several years.

While I didn’t continue a career of being a weekly sports columnist, I’m always thankful to carry the skills and interests honed at TCB, writing about the intersection of sports and politics as often as I can.

Stan Sussina (Photography intern, 2022)

I was a photography intern in the spring of 2022 while attending Randolph Community College. My favorite assignment was covering a portion of former president Joe Biden’s visit to Greensboro. It was an exciting opportunity, especially for a student with no experience covering large local news events. 

Working at Triad City Beat was incredibly instrumental in my growth as a young aspiring photojournalist. I was tasked with photographing a wide range of community experiences and subcultures that I had never been exposed to. The paper gave me my first published work and the experience of working with a staff of dedicated and passionate journalists. Seeing my picture on the front page of the paper was a huge confidence booster to keep going. I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to work with such an important local publication. 

I’m currently a staff photographer at The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana’s newspaper.

Todd Turner (Photographer, 2016-23)

I remember reaching out to Brian many years ago simply out of respect for the authenticity and transparency of the publication that he had built. I wanted to be a part of it all. I had an undying passion for visual storytelling and I lived for experiences. He was gracious enough to add me to the TCB family and what a ride it was!

In the years that I spent covering a wide variety of topics for Triad City Beat, I was introduced to countless local talents, witnessed a multitude of local events, and perhaps most importantly, I learned things about my community that I never would’ve been privy to without the opportunity. This is something that I will be eternally grateful for.

One particular assignment that stands out for me is when Sayaka and I went out to cover a BDSM fitness class in High Point. I’d certainly never experienced anything like that. It was a wild experience that shed serious light on the less publicized subcultures in the triad. We truly do have a robust, multi-faceted community here, and I was able to witness this countless times.

In reflection, I am so happy to have made that phone call to Brian. I am so grateful that he welcomed me into the family. Because, for the past 7+ years, I have learned so much. I’ve become a better journalist simply by surrounding myself with some of the best. I’ve become more integrated and connected to my community than ever before. TCB was so special and I will carry these lessons with me into all that I do in my city for many years to come. 

Nicole Zelniker (Reporter, 2021-22)

I’d nearly given up on journalism when I started working for Triad City Beat. Brian Clarey and Sayaka Matsuoka brought me on as a reporter in the spring of 2021 and through TCB, I learned that there was still good to be done at local outlets.

I covered all kinds of stories in the Triad, but my favorite article is one where I interviewed five folks about their abortions. I believe the old adage that journalism should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed and I believe this story did that.

Now, I work in higher ed, run a lit mag, and write my own books. I don’t know that I’d be where I am now without the support of the people at TCB. I’ll always be grateful for my time there, both for what I learned and the people I met along the way.