June 01, 2007
Interview

PR Interview: Become a Star in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

SUMMARY: Would you like to reach people in the third fastest-growing metropolitan area in the US? The Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Metroplex is a hub for teleservices and high-tech companies. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram boasts multiple Pulitzers and an Old West legacy, while constituting the country’s fourth largest market. We interviewed the publication’s Managing Editor to find out how you can target their reporters.
Contact information
Rex Seline
Managing Editor
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
400 W. Seventh St.
Fort Worth, TX 76102
817-390-7729
rseline(at)star-telegram(dot)com

Background
Seline graduated from the University of Nebraska. He started his newspaper career at The Democrat & Chronicle in Rochester, NY, and then moved to The Dallas Times Herald and The New York Times. Seline came to Fort Worth from The Miami Herald, where he was a Business Writer and Executive Business Editor. He joined The Fort Worth Star-Telegram as Business Editor and was named Managing Editor in June 2000.

Circulation and readership
Daily: total average paid, 219,715; readership, 529,800. Sunday: total average paid, 321,322; readership, 768,200. Source: ABC Audit Report: 12-month average ending March 31, 2005.

Subscribers are well-educated, upscale, white-collar executives:
o 56% graduated from college
o 54% have household incomes greater than $75,000
o 50% hold Professional/Executive/Technical titles
o 45.5% daily subscribers (52.2% Sunday subscribers) are women
o More than 40% are 35 to 54 years old
o More than 60% are married

Examples of current editorial coverage
The newspaper’s sections include local, national and international news, work, money and health. They also publish special sections throughout the year on topics such as baseball, football, weddings, living with panache and education.

Web site
Star-Telegram.com is the nation’s oldest continuously-operating online publication. It has been available electronically since 1982. The site gets 867,000 unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen//Net Ratings.

The site offers news, business, sports, entertainment, living, shopping and travel sections. Visitors can also access real estate, recruitment, classifieds and automotive channels. Online Extras include an electronic edition of the paper http://star-telegram.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx, multimedia presentations http://www.star-telegram.com/multimedia/index.html and newsletters. In addition, the site offers an RSS reader and e-Xtra, a subscriber newsletter.

Users are sophisticated readers mostly ages 25-54, college-educated (33.4%) with household incomes topping $50,000 (34.9% earn $75,000+). Source: Media Audit June-August 2005.

How to pitch staff members
Seline advises emailing your press releases to one of the newspaper’s 300+ reporters and editors. “The best target is the reporter who covers the subject or his or her editor.” Seline promises that your email will be given objective consideration, “We judge pitches on their merit, not on whether any of our people went to school with the PR person.”

A Sherpa hint: browse the newspaper to figure out whom you need to contact. Seline’s No. 1 pet peeve is “someone making the pitch who has never seen our publication and who knows nothing about our city.” Then, email the appropriate reporter/editor using the following format: first initial followed by last name @star-telegram.com. However, they don’t respond to every release. “If we did, we’d have time for little else.”

What to include: Seline says they want interesting stories that are relevant to their readers. “We focus staff attention on those stories that have local impact and that we can add value to by devoting ourselves to the reporting. Don’t waste time in a pitch trying to write the story for us.” Instead, convey the rationalization as to why the story should be heard. The fact that your client wants publicity shouldn’t be the underlying motive. “If you can’t articulate a good reason, you can be assured that we won’t find one either.”

Meet Seline and other editors
Seline doesn’t attend trade shows but will accept an occasional lunch with local executives. He is “eager to hear if someone has complaints or suggestions.” However, if you want to meet regarding a story pitch, he suggests contacting the reporters who are more open to meetings with sources.


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