diff --git a/manual/gather_media_files.py b/manual/gather_media_files.py
index 49514a3..246e294 100644
--- a/manual/gather_media_files.py
+++ b/manual/gather_media_files.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Runs the news_fetch pipeline against a manually curated list of urls and saves t
 import sys
 sys.path.append("../news_fetch")
 import runner
+import os
 import logging
 logger = logging.getLogger()
 
@@ -49,6 +50,8 @@ def show():
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     logger.info("Overwriting production values for single time media-fetch")
+    if not os.path.exists("../.dev/"):
+        os.mkdir("../.dev/")
     runner.configuration.models.set_db(
         runner.configuration.SqliteDatabase("../.dev/media_downloads.db")
     )