Forth Worth Star Telegram - Preliminary Report Card

As I mentioned last week, I terminated my subscription to the Dallas Morning News due to poor service. I decided to try the Fort Worth Star Telegram in place of it, and they have been delivering to our house since Tuesday. So I thought it would be worth giving an early report on how they are doing.

First, delivery (over a limited period of time of course) is way better. The paper was there before I left for work (~5:45 a.m.) during the week, and it was there when I went to retrieve it between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. on the weekend. It may have been there earlier than that, but I wasn't up to notice. This was my biggest (and really only) complaint with the DMN so the Star Telegram is a winner.

That's not to say it is an equal. Visually it is the worst looking newspaper that I've seen from a large city. DMN definitely had this nailed. Another area where DMN was better is in content. Let's face it. I'm mostly interested in the Sports page - isn't this true for most guys? While they have pretty good columnists, the Star Telegram does not have Rick Gosselin. He's one of the best football minds around. They rest of the sports page has the essentials, but there's just not quite as much there. Finally, DMN would use larger fonts and different layouts for the box scores for local teams while the Star Telegram gives the same small, run of the mill box score that you would see for the Atlanta Hawks/Utah Jazz game.

Don't get me wrong. The Star Telegram is a good newspaper. I just think that the DMN is more in the excellent category. It doesn't matter how good their product is, though, if they can't reliably get it to me. At the end of the day that's why I'm a satisfied Star Telegram subscriber.

Until next time...
PH