The Georgia Gazette — Real. Independent. News.

Savannah metro area, Georgia, USA · Published by Abatis Media LLC

Editorial note: The Georgia Gazette describes itself as a public-interest transparency publication providing unfiltered access to public arrest records. It has also been the subject of sustained criticism from subjects, consumer complaint boards, a Georgia state legislator, and investigative reporting by WSB-TV Channel 2 Atlanta, which characterised its model as mugshot aggregation whose primary effect is to harm people who have not been convicted and who have difficulty obtaining removals. This page presents both the publication's self-description and the documented criticism. The historical Georgia Gazette (1763) and its Pulitzer Prize-winning 1970s revival are separate publications from which the current site takes its name but with which it has no institutional connection.

Overview

The Georgia Gazette is a digital publication founded in January 2020 by Matthew (Matt) Sayle, based in the Savannah metropolitan area of Georgia and published through Abatis Media LLC. It describes itself as providing "real, independent news" focused exclusively on crime — publishing arrest records, booking photographs, and brief factual crime reports aggregated from sheriff's offices and jails across approximately 80 of Georgia's 159 counties. The publication states it reaches more than 20 million readers per month, serves as "the primary and often only source of crime news (or news at all, for that matter) for many small Georgia towns," and operates independently of advertising relationships that might influence coverage. It publishes a subscriber-supported model for ad-free access and deeper coverage. The publication has also built a YouTube series called Behind The Headlines, hosted by Joshua John, exploring notable Georgia criminal cases in depth.

The current publication takes its name from the historic Georgia Gazette — founded in Savannah on 7 April 1763 by James Johnston as Georgia's very first newspaper — and from a Pulitzer Prize-winning alternative weekly of the same name published in Savannah in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Marjorie and Albert Scardino. Neither historical publication has any institutional connection to the current Georgia Gazette. Publisher Matt Sayle explicitly references both predecessors in his founding editorial, noting that the 1970s Scardino paper was shut down when Chatham County pulled its legal advertising revenue — a form of financial pressure he argues his advertising-independent model is designed to resist.

The Name and Its Historical Predecessors

The original Georgia Gazette (1763–1802) was Georgia's first newspaper, established by Scottish immigrant James Johnston at his print shop on Broughton Street in Savannah under a Royal Printer commission from the colonial legislature. It published local and international news, government proclamations, and commercial advertisements, and navigated the revolutionary period with a cautious neutrality that earned Johnston the enmity of Patriot factions; he was declared guilty of high treason in 1778 and fled Georgia twice, returning each time as political circumstances shifted. The paper published under various names — the Royal Georgia Gazette and the Gazette of the State of Georgia among them — before Johnston and his son ceased publication in 1802.

The 1970s Georgia Gazette was an alternative weekly newspaper founded in Savannah by Albert Scardino and his wife Marjorie, who later became CEO of Pearson PLC. Albert Scardino won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1984 for his work at the paper. The Gazette was closed in 1985 after Chatham County withdrew its legal advertising, eliminating approximately 60% of the paper's revenue — a decision Scardino attributed to the paper's aggressive coverage of local government. That episode is directly referenced by Matt Sayle as a cautionary tale that shaped his decision to build the current Georgia Gazette on a subscription and display advertising model rather than dependence on government legal advertising.

Publishing Model and Editorial Approach

The current Georgia Gazette's editorial model rests on a specific set of stated principles. It publishes every arrest from the counties it covers — not a curated selection — on the grounds that readers rather than editors should decide what matters. It publishes booking photographs on the grounds that they serve accuracy (preventing misidentification), transparency (showing law enforcement operates in public view), and public safety (informing communities when individuals are released on bond after arrest). It keeps reporting "concise and free of editorializing" — presenting facts without telling readers how to interpret them. It describes its coverage as analogous to how specialist publications such as TMZ, Politico, ESPN, or TechCrunch focus on specific beats: "we choose crime."

On the revenue side, the publication states that it does not rely on legal advertising revenue from government bodies and does not allow advertising relationships to influence coverage. It operates a subscription model for ad-free access and premium features. It also maintains what it describes as a Second Chance Committee (SCC) — an anonymous review body that evaluates requests for removal of records beyond what Georgia law requires, based on factors including the severity of the charge, time elapsed since the arrest, the outcome of the case, and overall criminal history. The publication states that removal is never available for payment, and that it processes dozens of qualified removal requests daily.

Criticism, Investigation, and Legislative Response

The Georgia Gazette has attracted sustained and documented criticism from multiple directions. In 2023, WSB-TV Channel 2 Atlanta broadcast an investigation titled "It's 100% clickbait. Georgia website posts mugshots regardless of how minor the crime," which profiled individuals whose arrests for minor or dismissed charges remained permanently indexed on the site and its associated social media accounts. The investigation documented the case of Bowen Mendelson, arrested for an expired vehicle tag with charges subsequently dismissed — a matter that nonetheless appeared on The Georgia Gazette alongside his LinkedIn profile when his name was searched. The WSB investigation also noted that the address listed by the publication with the Georgia Secretary of State corresponded to a commercial building primarily occupied by a smoothie shop, not a Gazette newsroom; and that publisher Matt Sayle had himself been convicted of a DUI in 2010.

State Representative Roger Bruce, who authored Georgia's mugshot removal law — which prohibits charging for the removal of mugshots and creates a formal process requiring websites to remove booking photos for people not convicted of a crime upon request — described the site's practices as "despicable" and said: "It was never intended for people to make a profit off of a mugshot being out there." Bruce noted that the publication adds its own watermark to booking photographs that are public records, and encouraged those with complaints to report the site to local sheriffs.

Consumer complaint forums contain numerous accounts from individuals who describe difficulty obtaining removals despite following the site's stated process, and from people whose charges were dismissed or who were never convicted but whose booking photographs remained published. Some complaints allege that individuals received hostile responses to removal requests. Sayle has responded publicly to the WSB investigation and related criticism, disputing the characterization of his business as a mugshot site, defending the publication of public records as a journalistic function performed by all news organizations, and noting his own DUI conviction as evidence that he applies the same standard to himself that he applies to others.

Scale and Current Activities

The Georgia Gazette states it publishes more than 20 million monthly page views and operates with a team of nearly 30 staff in the Savannah metro area. Beyond its core arrest-record coverage, the publication has expanded into longer-form journalism through Behind The Headlines, its original YouTube series hosted by Joshua John, which examines notable Georgia criminal cases including a polygamous cult in Eaton that erected Egyptian monuments, the unsolved murders of the Dermond family, and the Hudson Bridge homicides in Henry County. The publication also covers political accountability and invites editorial contributions, opinion pieces, and guest columns from readers. It covers news across Georgia's counties and has built county-specific audiences in the markets where local news coverage has become minimal or non-existent. A digital subscription provides ad-free access; the publication also accepts tips and correspondence through Matt@TheGeorgiaGazette.com.

The Georgia Gazette
Published by Abatis Media LLC
Savannah metro area, Georgia, USA

Publisher: Matthew (Matt) Sayle · Contact: Matt@TheGeorgiaGazette.com

Website: thegeorgiagazette.com  |  Second Chance Policy: thegeorgiagazette.com/second-chance-policy

Behind The Headlines (YouTube series hosted by Joshua John)