About Desert Focus Media LLC

We are passionate about Lake Havasu City, Arizona and love that we have the privilege of calling this community our home. The Lake Havasu City area is a beautiful and amazing place to visit all year round and we want to advocate for it worldwide. Our goal is to showcase all community activities, events, news and resources from a central digital publishing brand. We will strive to share and represent all real-world and digital communities of both residents and visitors alike.

We have formed a team of talented photographers, videographers, content producers, writers and editors. Our initial publishing property, RiverScene Magazine, is for all ages, demographics and groups existing on the river scene. RiverScene Magazine in an online magazine and we love the fact that we are “green” and are currently not in print.  Our content can be seen online anytime of the day on your phones, laptops, and computers.

Jillian Danielson
Publisher/Photographer

Jillian Danielson Publisher/Photographer

Jillian moved to Lake Havasu in 1987 from a small Iowa farm town. She started taking photos in 2001 of her newborn daughter and photography not only became her artistic passion, but then became her career.

Jillian started freelance photography for the Today’s News Herald in 2007 and since then has had many photographic opportunities within Lake Havasu and beyond. Some of these career opportunities include shooting photos for the Arizona State Fair, Ballooning Magazine, credentials with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns, as well as having photos appear on NBC Today Show of the Masche Sextuplets, Weather Channel,  and Phoenix news stations of her monsoon images.

“I have grown up in Lake Havasu and have had the amazing opportunity to photograph the families and events around this beautiful city. The brilliant sunsets blaze through my camera lens during the monsoon storms one day, and the next I am shooting photos of our Havasu citizens donating their time to helping others. Thank you Lake Havasu for embracing my photography throughout the years! I live my life looking through a camera lens and I love using RiverScene Magazine as a showcase on the internet of the people and scenery along the Colorado River. ”

Body of work with RiverScene Magazine: RSM Articles

Becky Maxedon
Editor

Becky Maxedon/Editor

Becky Maxedon has lived in Lake Havasu City since 2007, coming to the city as the managing editor of the Today’s News-Herald. She is currently the executive director of the Lake Havasu Museum of History.

After a 30-plus year career in journalism, Becky has taken leave of the seven-day deadline-driven industry to give back to the Lake Havasu community that she has fallen in love with.

This forward-thinking innovative project to bring another perspective of the Lake Havasu community is exciting and needed and Becky hopes her editorial experience can help lead to success and longevity.

Becky was raised in Colorado, her career in journalism has afforded her the opportunity to live and work in various locales throughout the Midwest and Southwestern United States, but she is happy to make Lake Havasu City her home.

“Since producing the first London Bridge Days special section for the newspaper to the publication of the 50-year anniversary section, I have been immersed in the history of the area,” she said.

Body of work with RiverScene Magazine: RSM Articles

                                                Stacey Harding

                                                    Advertising Executive 

Christina Broderick

Advertising Executive

Christina Broderick/Advertising Executive

 Jayne Hanson

Reporter

Jayne Hanson/Reporter

 Grace Usher
Reporter/Photographer

Grace Usher/Reporter and On-Camera Social Media

Grace Usher was born and raised in Lake Havasu City. She graduated from Lake Havasu High School in 2013 and received her Associates degree in Liberal Arts in 2018.

She has been a Staff Writer for RiverScene since 2017. Her main focus for articles are Citizen Spotlights, Event Coverage, and “Day Trippin” Travel Itineraries. She also is the face of Facebook Lives for exclusive behind-the-scene coverage. Her favorite stories include the AZ Spring Break series, 12 News Visits Lake Havasu, and Weekend Trip to Sedona, AZ.

Along with RiverScene, Grace is a freelance content writer, blogger, and social media consultant.

                                                            Cortez Fields

                                                     Reporter/Social Media 

Karley Glover
LHHS Student Writer/Photographer

Karley Glover/Writer LHHS Journalism student

Karley Glover moved to Lake Havasu City in 2012. She is a Lake Havasu High School student in Kristal Norman’s journalism class and started interning with RiverScene in January 2017.

She loves to write stories on the people in Lake Havasu that do extraordinary things and also loves to take photos of landscapes and candid’s.  When Karley is not writing or taking photos, she loves to read in her spare time and will graduate LHHS in 2019.

Erin O’Callaghan

Photographer/Videographer

Erin O’Callaghan/Photographer and Video

Erin O’Callaghan moved to Lake Havasu in 2003 from California. She was a softball player for 12 years and started taking photos in 2013 at the young age of 14. She graduated from Lake Havasu High School in 2017.

She studied Photography at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her photographs highlight people candid’s and action sports. She also loves to experiment with macro photography using obscure items such as steel wool and florals.

With RiverScene, she focuses on sports photography and perfectly framing essential headshots to pair with interview articles.

Staff Not Pictured:

Neil Betrue/Web Design

Bonnie Swander/123 Bookkeeping

Stacey Harding/Advertising Executive

Cortez Fields/Reporter 

* RiverScenemagazine.com would not be where it is today without all of the RiverScene Contributor writers, photographers, and videographers. Very special thank you to you all: Ashley Walsh, Judy Lacey, Stephanie Thompson,  Shelby Horn,  Emily Cassens, Rick Powell, Ken Gallagher, Daisy Finch, Bill and Marilyn Boyer, Mac Ruiz, Nathan Adler, Janet Cruz, Mark Colon, Jake Schwab, Jessica Reed, Dave and Chantal Day,  Sam Stebila Pixeo Pro.