Introducing Las Vegas Patch!

I'll probably never forget the hours I spent applying for reporting jobs from my brother's laptop after I finally got my degree. I took an non-traditional path to graduating college and a less than smooth job search ensued. I completed some internships in college and had an adequate, albeit unspectacular, breadth of experience in journalism. I thought it might be enough to get me into the entry-level of a newsroom, at least.

It wasn't that easy. Looking back I might've been too picky.

Living in a small Maine town most of your life can start to feel claustrophobic, so when I applied for jobs I did so west of the Mississippi River with an especial focus on Nevada. Though I had never actually visited before, I'm fairly certain that I applied for every single reporting job that became available in the state for two years from 2014-2015. Plenty of failed attempts finally led me to the perfect situation. I moved to Mesquite in February 2016 to begin reporting to the Desert Valley Times--a twice weekly newspaper in the small town of 18,000 people.

Yes, I would have loved to jump into Sin City right away. But I wasn't ready. The opportunity in Mesquite was ideal. I was able to start my career in Nevada at the community level while learning about what matters to Nevadans. Over the last two years I've soaked in as much as I can, either by following the coverage of other journalists, or giving myself a midnight crash course in, for example, the history of Yucca Mountain.

I spent almost two years in Mesquite and was fortunate to have opportunities to cover the complete gamut of news in Nevada. Everything from public lands, to Clark County School District issues, to a congressional campaign, to deeper features pieces, and more.

I'm pleased to announce my next opportunity, as the Local Editor for Las Vegas Patch. In a lot of ways, being part of this city is truly a dream come true for me, and I'll approach it as such.

The goal of Las Vegas Patch is simple: to provide another forum for the citizens of Las Vegas. The foremost priority of our coverage will be to provide original reporting whenever it is possible to do so. However, that will be impossible to do in every situation. One of the reasons I love Nevada is because it's full of news junkies. The people are engaged and responsive to coverage and the journalists who provide it in this state are some of the best in the entire country. If it's one of them tracking a story we can't get to, we'll be sure to direct you--in full transparency--to where you can go to stay informed.

To be what we want to ultimately become we need you, the reader, to be involved. Think of this as a place where you can get the latest news around Las Vegas, but also a place you come to find out what's happening in your neighborhood that week, look for a job, or to discuss Las Vegas at the hyperlocal level.

There's plenty of work in the future to establish a recognizable and trusted news name in a major metropolitan area where many are already entrenched. But there are stories in Las Vegas that aren't being told, and that's the void we hope to fill.

Recent months have shown what the true spirit of Las Vegas is. This is a town that chooses to define itself, unapologetically, on its own terms. A town as compassionate as it is fearless. The opportunity to capture and depict that spirit through a new brand of local journalism is one I'm excited and grateful to lead.

So I say, hello Las Vegas. I'm looking forward to what we can create together.

-Lucas Thomas, Local Editor, Las Vegas Patch

@LucasThomas14

@LasVegasPatch

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