.png)
New Year, New Project
It’s that time of year again!
A season of wishful thinking, empty promises, and gluttonous eating. My favorite.
Or at least the eating is.
As some of you know (or at least those that subscribe and get my email updates), I’m venturing into a great new abyss. The journalistic abyss.
As the offspring of my year+ work as a journalist here in the Jewel of the Caucasus, I’m going off on my own project to explore the field more. Combining my love of travel, writing, photography, languages, and my newfound love of videography and video editing, this will be a mess of “all the above.”
This new project, titled the “MikeReports Freelance Journalism Project” is not a small business, not a big profit-maker, and not even really a full time job. The aim is to be a combination of creative outlet as well as a provider of interesting and insightful content for my friends and followers. The scope really includes anything I come across that could be intriguing for you.
This includes some of the usual topics seen here such as food, local events, drinks, restaurants, scenic sights, history, etc.. However, it also adds on the mainstream journalism topics of some regional politics, conflict, society, and other current events particularly ones that don't make it to the mainstream outlets.
As a result of all this, it is entirely self-funded. This means the ability to do a lot of the work, travel, and acquire helpful equipment and gear that makes it all possible or better quality comes from my own pocket. I have no major backers, no company behind me, and no startup funding.
However, you can help with this project. While anyone who knows me well knows I’m not one to ask for help, the breadth of this project would be seriously limited were it not for others goodwill. I’ve opened some donation accounts online to accept contributions from anyone. If you’re interested, the homepage of this site has a link to my LinkTree that has all the relevant MikesReports links you might find interesting. Additionally, it has some ways you can contact me if you have questions, suggestions, or just want to see what I’m up to today.
As far as content, my goal is to have 1 to 3 pieces out every week, with a constant stream of relevant shared content in between. I’m aiming at doing both photo essays and video projects showcasing all the above topics.
If the opportunity comes, I also have a cooking/culinary side channel that might launch but that may take some time to become a reality. We’ll see…
Right now, I only have some editing software and a couple of decent cameras (Olympus E-420 for still photos and Fujifilm SL280 for both still and moderate quality video). I have my mobile phone for some alternate photos and video, but it has not had the greatest record of stability when recording or taking photos on the fly.
Ultimately, this is just a notice to my followers and fans to expect more content, a new addition to this site for some of that content, social media content, and new multimedia projects coming in 2022. If you’d like to help, I can try to offer early access, pre-release access, and other options depending on what we can decide together. I’m always open to talking about benefits.
So there it is friends and neighbors! New projects and new things for a new year. I hope to have some holiday and New Year content up before 2022 hits, but that also depends on timing, equipment, and availability.
Here’s to the holidays, friends, family, and the New Year!
Cheers