I started writing for print as an intern at Willamette Week, in Portland, Ore. It remains one of the last strong alternative weeklies. My time there was spent reviewing bars, books, movies and especially live theatre. I was later hired to manage the film and theatre pages as a supervising editor during a three-month transition period. I learned how to edit a small stable of freelancers and execute comprehensive listings and showtimes spreads. And I wrote a lot of feature reviews.

In 2006, I helped create a new alternative newspaper serving Clark County in Southwest Washington. After publishing the paper at a profit for two years and reaching a circulation of 20,000, I negotiated its sale to The News-Register Publishing Co. in 2008. Our paper was called The Vancouver Voice. I was also the editor.

Next I moved to Europe and took over as film and theatre critic for The Prague Post. At the time, I was the only critic writing print reviews in English for a readership based in the Czech Republic. I wrote and edited showtimes listings and reviews for every film and theatre performance in the City of Prague with an English-language component. It was a great job.

Returning to the US, I worked in Austin, Texas, writing freelance reviews for The Austin Chronicle and several arts magazines, for which I contributed cover stories and numerous features. I landed as managing editor for the Elgin Courier in Bastrop County. I was quickly promoted to The Taylor Press, flagship paper for Blacklands Publications, where I was made publisher in training.

I left Texas in 2015, relocating to Glasgow, Mont., where I took over the Glasgow Courier as managing editor. The Courier has been the newspaper of record for Valley County on the Canadian border for over a century. After three years, I left them with a good core staff and a small stack of new awards.

I spent the next autumn in St. Louis, Mo., supervising the publication of the first four weekly editions of The Northsider newspaper. They are still publishing in partnership with a successful sister publication, The Southsider.

In November, 2018, I took over as editor for the Herald-News in Wolf Point, Mont., and the Searchlight, in nearby Culbertson, two of the oldest weekly newspapers in the state.

In May of that year, I followed former Herald-News /Searchlight publisher Darla Downs in founding a new regional publication, Northern Plains Independent. We were recognized as the official newspaper for advertisements and publications by Roosevelt County in June, 2019., and we successfully sued for ownership of the Herald-News and Searchlight, consolidating ownership in local hands. The Downs family also publishes the Community News, serving the Culbertson area. I edit that paper too.

Other publications I’ve contributed to include Billings Gazette, Choteau Acantha, Helena Independent Record, MauiTime, Missoulian, National Geographic Traveler, Oregon Wine Press, Phillips County News and The Portland Mercury.