Maintaining the title “Queen of Local News” is no small feat, but Betsy Price makes it look easy.

As the features editor for The Wilmington News Journal, Betsy writes, edits and manages a handful of the paper’s sections. Her passion is to provide her readers with interesting and important local content.  

She cut her teeth in Alabama, spending her undergraduate years at Auburn University, and then moved onto the Birmingham News as both staff writer and eventually editor. She moved to Delaware in 2005.

Betsy visited Garden Media for the firm’s monthly Lunch with a Pro series to discuss the industry landscape.

Read on to continue learning about Betsy and her visit with Garden Media.  

1. She wears a lot of hats
   The only way to get what you want is to work hard for it. And that is exactly what Betsy does. When The Wilmington News Journal restructured itself, Betsy stepped in and took over editing, writing, managing and much more. She embodies work ethic and determination. 
   
   “I had no choice, I couldn’t let the paper fail,” she said.
    
2. She’s wanted to work in the newspaper biz since she was four
   Everyone knows what they want to do when they’re four, right? That’s what Betsy thought growing up. When she was little, she would bring the newspaper into her living room in the morning, lay out all the sections and sit on them and tell her mother she was going to be a reporter one day.
   
   Congratulations Betsy, your dream came true! 
   
   
3. She thinks everyone should attend Firefly 
   Just once, just for the experience. Betsy said life is all about the experience, adding that she once attended a race at Talladega Superspeedway (despite not being a racing fan) and met some interesting characters.  
   
   
4. She defies the status quo
   In a world where PR pros and journalists are often at odds, she thinks everyone can get along. Betsy said public relations professionals can be a huge help to journalists if they demonstrate that they’re trustworthy and pitch newsworthy stories.
   
   She said the best pitches are straight forward and supply several story angles, adding that anyone in the public relations industry should “think about what they can do digitally” whenever they reach out to a reporter. 
   
   
5. She has a no nonsense policy
   700 emails a day, 70 hour weeks and currently 19,721 unopened messages sitting in her inbox. Betsy is nothing short of busy. She said sometimes she becomes so focused on work that she wakes up in the morning, sits down at her computer and doesn’t leave until its dark out.
   
   She’s committed to making the paper the best it can be. 
   
   
6. She Is An Oracle
   Betsy is a wealth of knowledge and advice. She said the key to success is making and maintaining personal contacts. Anyone just staring out in the industry should try and meet new contacts face-to-face. Yes, she even said a little stalking never hurt anyone.
   
   
7. She’s a queen bee 
   She wants to provide readers with the best content possible. She’s the queen of local news stories in Delaware, after all.

One of the ways you can tell a journalist is a good journalist is when they don’t write about just anything. You can tell by the copious amounts of time Betsy spends at the paper, she truly cares about it. And like her story pitching advice, she likes that things are to the point.

Thanks for visiting us and for your time, Betsy! We learned so much!

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