On March 12, 2025, Houston City Beat marks its fifth anniversary, a milestone that reflects the tenacity and vision of its founder and editor, Lisbet Newton. What began as a spontaneous idea during the COVID-19 lockdown has grown into an independent media outlet dedicated to capturing the pulse of Greater Houston. In an interview, Newton recounted the outlet’s origins, its early years of exploration, and its transformation into a vital community voice.
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The story of Houston City Beat started on March 12, 2020, just as the world grappled with a newly declared pandemic. Newton, then running a marketing agency, found herself at home, seeking purpose amid uncertainty. “The name for Houston City Beat came to me one day five years ago,” she said. “A day much like today with the sun shining and the birds chirping. The only difference was that we were on a COVID lockdown.” Inspiration struck like “a freight train flashing in front of [her],” prompting her to rush to GoDaddy.com and secure the domain—houstoncitybeat.com—on the spot. “I bought it and the rest is history,” she recalled.
Initially, Newton envisioned Houston City Beat as a directory to support small business owners, a natural extension of her marketing background. With an MBA from the University of St. Thomas and experience in oil and gas companies, she had left corporate America years earlier, finding it unfulfilling. Her knack for building relationships—both in-person and online—led her to launch a marketing agency in 2020. Houston City Beat was meant to complement that work, offering a platform for micro-businesses to advertise. But she quickly realized a directory alone lacked depth. “It’s not enough to just slap up a directory and call it a day and say, ‘Hey, we’re promoting your business,’” she admitted. “That wasn’t enough.”
For the first two and a half years, Newton poured her energy into experimenting with content creation, interviewing entrepreneurs and producing raw Zoom videos during lockdown. She posted on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, aiming to connect Houstonians through stories of resilience and innovation. Far from aimless, she was chasing a spark—a way to ignite Houston City Beat into the vibrant outlet she dreamed it could be. She saw potential in every interview, every video, believing that with the right approach, it could take off and resonate deeply with the community. By late 2022, still refining her vision, she put the site on a brief hiatus—not out of defeat, but to regroup and find the key to unlocking its full promise. “I felt like I needed a break until I figured it out,” she explained, her tone reflecting determination rather than doubt.
The turning point came in July 2022 when Newton met Mike Acosta, who brought 22 years of experience with the Houston Astros, including voiceovers, PA announcing, emceeing events, serving as team historian, and contributing to the Astros Hall of Fame—roles that fueled his storytelling creativity. At the time, he had also spent two years in branding and communications for a local company. Their chance encounter sparked a collaboration that redefined Houston City Beat. “He fell in love with the Houston City Beat name,” Newton said. “He fell in love with this vision that he formed in his mind of what Houston City Beat could be.” That first day, they toured Houston, filming a welcome video to introduce the outlet’s mission. Impressed by Acosta’s dedication, Newton offered him a partnership. “I knew that whatever he was forming in his head was going to work,” she said, recognizing the need for a team to shoulder the immense workload of independent media.
Since then, Houston City Beat has evolved into a storyteller of Houston’s unsung heroes—business owners, artists, nonprofit leaders—whose voices often go unheard in mainstream outlets. The duo’s process remains fluid, eschewing rigid schedules for a focus on meaningful content. “We fly by the seat of our pants a lot of the time,” Newton laughed, but their strategy centers on resilience, community engagement, and factual reporting. “The most fulfilling thing to me about Houston City Beat is all of the stories that we’re able to capture and share through our platforms,” she said, delighting in seeing ideas come to life and resonate with readers.
Unlike legacy media, driven by corporate pressures and quick soundbites, Houston City Beat prioritizes depth and autonomy. “We can go and tell a story that’s 30 minutes long,” Newton noted, free from distant executives dictating coverage. This independence allows them to compete alongside bigger stations at events like protests, where they’ve learned to value their perspective over equipment size. “We have just as much of a right to be here and report the story based on our perspective as they do,” she asserted, a lesson hard-won over recent months.
Newton’s commitment to factual reporting sets Houston City Beat apart in an era of “fake news” skepticism. “It’s important to report the facts and not sway it to your opinion,” she said, distancing her outlet from both politically skewed independents and sensationalist conglomerates. She sees truth as a balm against fear, recalling COVID-19 coverage rife with emotion. “If the news outlets would have stuck to only reporting the facts, the situation would have been handled a lot differently,” she argued.
Looking to the future, Newton dreams big. “When Houston City Beat turns ten, I want Houston City Beat to have a building with the name houstoncitybeat.com at the top,” she envisioned, aiming for financial sustainability to employ reporters and staff. Her ultimate goal is clarity for Houstonians. “When you hear the truth and you don’t hear the emotion behind the way people want you to sway, it removes the fear factor,” she said, emphasizing the power of unfiltered facts.
Five years in, Houston City Beat stands as a testament to Newton’s resilience and Acosta’s creativity, a platform born from a lockdown epiphany and refined through collaboration. It’s not about them, Newton insists—it’s about community. “When people see Houston City Beat, I want them to not see a face but see a community,” she said. “They’re the storytellers of Houston.” As Greater Houston grows, so too does their mission to deliver news that matters, one authentic story at a time.
