St. Pete Times comes to Seminole Heights bearing gifts

So we (Southeast Seminole Heights) had our first date with the St. Petersburg Times tonight. They treated us well, bringing us food and gifts, and respected us afterwards.

Susan Thurston City Times Editor spoke at the general Membership meeting. Also present was Jeanne Holton and Jana Alexander of the Times Community Relations. (By the way Jeanne Holton has a Seminole Heights connectin as a WMNF'er, the host of the Saturday Morning Folk Show)

Ms. Thurston provided us with a brief overview of the history of the Times. Apparently the paper was started in 1884 as the West Hillsborough Times (at that time Pinellas County was part of Hillsborough County) and talked about the paper's and it's staffers relationship with Tampa. Jeanne also spoke about some of the various activities the Times supports. One is a Welcome Box, in which the Times places some Times items and a paper and gives it to the neighborhood associations for them to place association information in and give it to new neighbors. Nice idea. The Times also offers to print association newsletters in exchange for an ad. This will happen with to the next SESHCA newsletter.

While poking around the online edition paper looking for some info in the Connect With Times, I found interesting things, such as A Guide to Getting Your News into the St. Petersburg Times , Quick Facts, Grants and other things.

It's been a while since I looked at the printed version of the City Times "Serving Tampa And Its Neighborhoods" and its companion Neighborhood Report "News From Around The Block". I feel included because there is a listing of all the neighborhoods covered and lo and behold there I spy Old Seminole Heights, South Seminole Heights and Southeast Seminole Heights. Warm feelings spread through the cockles of my heart (wow three cliche phrases!). There is also a nice little map showing the coverage area with some of the neighborhoods listed. I wonder if they list the same neighborhoods each time or if they rotate them. My superficial impression is there a lot more color. A lot more inviting.

I am impressed.

Side Note: As I look at the front page of the City Times, I notice the letters TCT in an unobtrusive size on left hand side of the title. Ahaa my conspiratorial mind says, the Times is sneaking another one past the Trib. I'll bet soon the City Times will be called the Tampa City Times. Ms. Thurston, says no, this is just an identifier, that each section has some initials to identify it. BRN for Brandon and etc. Darn! What a good story that would have been.

The Trib's Kathy Steele was at the meeting, as usual diligently covering her neighborhood beat.