Democracy dies when no eyes are watching, and you might want someone watching and reporting facts when the world is going up in flames.

Thanks to a number of problems, including a stranglehold on online advertising by major tech companies, media outlets around the country that perform actual local journalism are shrinking if not dying outright in favor of outsized “influencers,” entertainment news and PR masquerading as journalism.

Raised in Colonial Heights, Brandon Jarvis had just begun a freelance journalism career when the pandemic hit, squeezing freelance budgets around the city. He had been writing for the Henrico Citizen [as well as this publication], but many of his pitches weren’t being picked up – so he started out on his own.

He began the VA Scope website after building his Twitter following throughout the social justice protests of 2020. Jarvis used online fundraising tool Patreon and PayPal donations to help keep it going, but it was his Substack newsletter that really changed things and allowed him to start reporting full-time.

Capitalizing on his social media following, he started a free Substack covering several state congressional races in September 2020. Early on he nabbed certain stories, like Republican Nick Freitas missing his filing deadline, but explains that covering the little, daily details of the governor’s race is what earned him momentum. By November, his Substack had paid subscribers.

“People get it in their inbox, then forward it, and more people subscribe and it just grows from there,” he says, noting that at press time he had 994 paid subscribers at $77 a year (that’s a $76,538 salary before the 10% commission fee charged by Substack and taxes). He also has 12,000 free subscribers who get a paywall version of the newsletter.

“It was a really poor first year-and-a-half, though,” he notes.

Today his general focus remains state-level politics and the governor’s office, but he says he still lives for covering the minutia of state campaigns. He recognizes the statewide reporting of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the in-depth work of Virginia Mercury, but says that he can usually find his own lane.

“Everyone kind of runs the same stories,” he says. “I think a lot of the stuff that happens seems complicated and I try to make it less complicated for the average reader, in the most readable way. And I do love the hustle, too.”

In a reversal of circumstance, he’s also now trying to bring on his own freelancers to grow his news coverage. “I’m trying to find as many freelance people as I can, but it’s really difficult.”