Thursday, May 17, 2007

Letters to the Editor

Here is a copy of an email I sent to the editors at the Times, PI and News Tribune. The WNBA has asked fans to contact their local papers to encourage more coverage. I have now subscribed to all three with delivery of the Times (Jayda Evans' work earns that) and donation of the PI and News Tribune subscriptions to the Newspapers in Education program. If they keep up the coverage I will run the subscriptions through the WNBA finals.

First, I want to thank the sports editors of the Times, the News Tribune and the PI for providing some of the best WNBA coverage in the country. The Times in particular has shined with the (there from the start) work of the excellent Jayda Evans. Darren Fessenden at the PI is new this year but he is showing promise this week with his latest pieces and Wendy Carpenter has done a nice job the past couple of years (though we don't see quite enough of her work.)

As the WNBA prepares to kick off its 2007 season and the WNBA's Seattle Storm are ready to challenge the league and bring home their second professional sports championship to this city. All three championships earned by this city are Basketball championships. While the city and state politicians (with rare exceptions) don't seem to have any interest in the teams or their role in the community, we sports fans do.

I challenge both the editorial and reporting staffs at your three papers to raise the bar on coverage of the WNBA this summer. Storm fans in Seattle are hungry for news and eager to support the team in what has to be a special season for the Storm. I will do my part. I don't subscribe to any of your papers (reading them online to avoid the massive recycling), but I will subscribe to all three this summer to show my support for your current efforts in covering basketball in general and the WNBA in particular. I will encourage other fans to do the same or to donate subscriptions to charity for those that already subscribe.

You are doing a good job...I challenge you to do a GREAT job. I look forward to your season previews in the next few days.

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