MICHELE EVANS NEWS

By Michele Evans
July 20, 2026

There are moments in journalism you never forget.

This is one of them.

After months of paperwork, documentation, questions, additional information, waiting and more than a few moments wondering whether the email would ever arrive, it finally appeared:

“Congratulations, your application for a Standard Press Card has been approved.”

I probably made enough noise for the neighbors to hear.

Because this was not just another email.

It was official confirmation that Michele Evans News and NY Weekly Record have earned a place among the journalists covering New York City.

We did it.

We are officially NYC press.

And in many ways, this story has been more than 400 years in the making.

FOUR CENTURIES OF NEW YORK HISTORY

My family’s connection to New York reaches back to the earliest chapters of the city’s history.

Among my ancestors are people who lived, worked and served in the communities that eventually became modern New York City. Their stories stretch back through colonial New Amsterdam, New Orange and Breuckelen, long before skyscrapers, television cameras, digital newsrooms or press credentials existed.

Those family histories include public officials, builders, settlers and people who helped shape communities that were still becoming New York.

Four centuries later, I am continuing that relationship with the city in my own way—not as a colonial official or early settler, but as a journalist determined to document what happens here, question those in power and preserve the stories of New Yorkers whose experiences might otherwise be ignored.

History has a strange way of circling back.

A HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, SURVIVAL AND SPEAKING OUT

My family history also intersects with the early Latter-day Saint movement.

The early members of that faith, often called Mormons, endured intense persecution in the United States. Families were driven from their homes. Communities were attacked. Property was destroyed. Political leaders treated an unpopular religious minority as a threat. Men, women and children were repeatedly forced to leave one place and begin again somewhere else.

That history is not included here as a claim that every struggle is identical.

It is included because it shaped generations of people in my family who learned that institutions can be wrong, public opinion can be cruel and the truth can remain the truth even when powerful people would prefer not to hear it.

When the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment requested additional information during my press-card application, I did not send back a simple résumé.

I sent them the story.

I explained the long history behind my commitment to public service, journalism, accountability and refusing to disappear when systems make participation difficult.

They asked for more information.

They got roughly 400 years of it.

And honestly?

That feels extremely on brand.

THE ROAD TO THIS PRESS CARD

This credential was not handed to me because I belonged to a giant media corporation.

There was no corporate newsroom behind the application.

No venture capital.

No wealthy publisher.

No large staff handling the paperwork.

There was me.

There were the articles I wrote, the stories I investigated, the interviews I conducted, the websites I built, the videos I produced and the Sunday broadcasts I created for NY Weekly Record.

There was my New York Times op-ed about Rikers Island.

There were years of professional experience in software engineering, digital media, sports journalism, writing and filmmaking.

There was also the reporting I built after experiencing the criminal legal system from the inside.

Michele Evans News grew from lived experience, technical knowledge, persistence and a refusal to accept that only enormous media companies should have the tools or access necessary to inform the public.

Every article mattered.

Every interview mattered.

Every video mattered.

Every late night fixing a website mattered.

Every time technology broke five minutes before publication mattered.

Every time I kept going when quitting would have been easier mattered.

Piece by piece, we built a newsroom.

WHAT THIS CREDENTIAL MEANS

A New York City Standard Press Card is more than a badge with my name and photograph on it.

It represents access.

It allows credentialed journalists to identify themselves professionally while covering newsworthy events and seeking access to locations, press areas and government activities where reporting takes place.

For an independent journalist, that recognition matters enormously.

Independent reporters routinely encounter unnecessary roadblocks while attempting to do the same work as journalists employed by larger organizations.

We are often asked to prove repeatedly that we are legitimate, that our publications are real, that our audiences exist and that our work serves the public.

This approval removes one major obstacle.

Now, Michele Evans News and NY Weekly Record can focus more energy on what truly matters:

Reporting the news.

Investigating government.

Covering courts.

Documenting public safety failures.

Examining conditions inside jails and prisons.

Following criminal justice policy.

Highlighting meaningful reforms.

Asking questions officials may not want to answer.

Bringing New Yorkers the stories that affect their everyday lives.

We can bring you more of the news without the same roadblocks standing between us and the story.

That is the real victory.

A SINCERE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO STOOD BEHIND ME

I want to offer my deepest and most sincere thanks to everyone who wrote letters of support to the Mayor’s Office on my behalf.

Those letters were not simply pieces of paperwork added to an application.

They were acts of faith.

You took the time to explain who I am, what my work means and why independent journalism like Michele Evans News and NY Weekly Record deserves access to the places where New York’s most important stories unfold.

You put your names and your reputations behind me.

You told decision-makers that this newsroom is real, this mission matters and this work has already made an impact.

I will never forget that.

Your words helped carry this application across the finish line, and I am profoundly grateful to every person who believed in me, supported the work and took the time to stand beside me.

The credential may have my name on it, but this victory belongs to all of us.

We did this together.

WE BUILT THIS THE HARD WAY

Over the past several months, we have built:

Michele Evans News.

NY Weekly Record.

Two news websites.

Weekly video broadcasts.

A podcast distributed across major platforms.

A growing library of accountability reporting.

Automated newsroom systems that help us research, publish, create videos and distribute stories.

A real, functioning independent media organization created from the ground up.

And now, we have official New York City press credentials.

There were plenty of reasons to quit.

There were technical problems.

Financial challenges.

Long days.

Court appearances.

Health issues.

Paperwork.

Delays.

Questions.

Requests for additional documents.

And waiting.

So much waiting.

But we did not quit.

Then, on July 20, 2026, the message arrived.

Approved.

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

This credential represents resilience.

It represents recognition.

It represents credibility.

Most importantly, it represents responsibility.

A press card does not make someone a journalist.

The work does.

The research does.

The accuracy does.

The willingness to ask difficult questions does.

The commitment to return tomorrow and keep reporting does.

This card confirms that the work we have already been doing has been recognized.

Now we move forward with even greater determination.

We will keep showing up.

We will keep asking questions.

We will keep investigating.

We will keep reporting the stories powerful institutions may prefer to avoid.

We will keep centering the experiences of New Yorkers who are too often treated as statistics instead of human beings.

We will walk through the doors that once appeared closed.

And when we get inside, we will bring the public with us.

To everyone who has read an article, watched a broadcast, listened to the podcast, shared a story, written a letter, offered encouragement or believed in this mission:

Thank you.

This is not the finish line.

It is the press pass to everything that comes next.

We rock.

And now, we are officially NYC press.

Let’s go get the news.