TARGETED NEWS SERVICE

New Editorial Services Company to Offer Washington Coverage, Range of Support Services for Newspapers, Editors, Databases

WASHINGTON, June 16 -- Targeted News Service, an editorial services company providing focused news products, has been formed by veteran Washington journalist Myron Struck, Kevin Meek, who owns and operates Meek Consulting, and Carol Kaelin, a journalist and former political operative.

Struck had been managing editor of States News Service for the past four years, and has previously served on the national staff of the Washington Post and in a variety of other Washington positions since 1975. He has been managing editor of CD Publications, a newsletter publishing company based in Silver Spring, Md., served as managing editor of Roll Call, the independent Congressional newspaper, and as managing editor of the Manassas (Va.) Journal Messenger.

Targeted News Service LLC, Springfield, Va., plans to offer a wide range of news and support services including core Washington coverage for newspapers.

"A key to success in the editorial services arena in the 21st century is to deliver the right product to the right audience," Struck said. "That includes knowing where to look, and what to write, for those newspapers that do not have a full-time Washington bureau, and offering editors - on the political, government and business desks - the right information that helps them do their job." But another key is that repackaging and repurposing sells. Information is out there, and it needs to be channeled to the right people at the right time.

Integral to Targeted News Service's data gathering is an alliance with HT Media Ltd. and HT Syndication, the Web and syndication arms of the Hindustan Times, India's largest newspaper. HT has created US Fed News to develop a wide range of support products for news, commercial and data-base clients in the U.S. and around the world, and Struck has been named managing editor of that entity and is its Washington/U.S. Bureau Chief.

"This alliance is extremely important to us, as it puts HT - a world-class organization - on stage in the U.S. market with a wide and growing range of products," Struck said. "Our goal is to make this liaison vibrant and interactive. As we find newspaper editors have a need for publicly held information in an organized, targeted manner, we plan to react with speed and collaboration to find the right way to get it to them."

Sanjay Trehan, chief executive - Internet for HT, said the decision to enter the world media market with a package of materials that ranged from federal documents to news based on information provided by the U.S. government meant that there had to be a Washington, and U.S., presence, and the decision was made to go with Struck and his team at Targeted News Service.

Targeted News Service will be assisting in gathering a wide range of raw government and congressional documents for US Fed News, and will be making that information available directly to editors in a targeted manner.

"Service and quality sells, and it is our goal to look at needs, and to fulfill them," Trehan said. "With alliances in place with Lexis/Nexis and Facitva, HT - through US Fed News - already has two world-class outlets for materials. We will be looking at corporate clients, trade associations and newspapers directly and we aim to meet their data and news needs. And what we cannot, Myron Struck, and the Targeted News team, will look at it."

And, Struck added, separate from the data gathering operation, "If it's straight reporting that's needed, we'll set that up too for a news editor or a business editor needing regular or spot Washington coverage. News organizations should have only one stop to look for what they need. Just give us a call and we'll see if we can help."

Targeted News Service also plans to acquire, and resell, columns on a wide range of topics. "We're looking at offerings that range from golf to baseball and from small business and minorities to traditional op-ed material," Kaelin said.

The news service will use proprietary, copyright technology developed by Meek to target delivery of the exact needs of a newspaper editor from the data sets available. Also, Targeted will feature a weekly federal vote chart detailing how members of Congress are voting. Clients can customize the service feature to cover the members in their readership area.

"Everyone should be able to know the issues that Congress is voting on and how their own member of Congress voted, and offering this service will be one of the core functions that we expect to serve," Kaelin said.

Another field of operation will be delivering information on government contracting activities to the nation's newspapers.

"If the federal government awards a contract to a business in Homestead, Fla., that information should be in the hands of the editors of the Miami Herald so they can decide its news value and consider using it," Kaelin said. "Our job will be to target as much Washington and other government news as possible to the right news audience. It's all about targeting."

The federal contract awards service, which is being done in collaboration with US Fed News, involves gathering awards to businesses in all 50 states and for all federal contracts in excess of $25,000 on a daily basis. In addition, the service will collect information about contract awards made by government and military installations in each of the 50 states, and editors will be able to know what local opportunities there are for their business-oriented readers.

The information would be written and presented to editors as news briefs that could be run directly in a news or business column, and the news service would be ready to take on assignments directly from recipient editors to turn these leads into full-blown stories upon request at the regular freelance rates by a newspaper or on a regular basis.

Later this summer, also as part of the collaboration with US Fed News, the federal contract service will be expanded to focus on contract solicitations. This will enable newspaper editors to know what types of projects may be ripe for bidding by readers who are in the business of providing support services and products to the government.

"No one is packaging this information in a manner that can get the data to news and business readers directly," Meek said. "That's our goal. Our program can direct information on education to those in the education field, small business information to those worried about taxes on small businesses or - more broadly - deliver to a client all the releases pertinent to the financial markets, from Congress and the federal agencies, without their having to go look for them at a wide range of places. It's all about targeting."

Meek will focus on adapting the feeds directly to the use of newspaper editors operating either in the print arena or those who want to have the information available to their Web site audience on their news sites.

Attached: TNS personnel

Member-Partner Information and contacts:

For more information, call 703/304-1897

Myron Struck - Editor & President
Myron@TargetedNews.com
703/866-4708 f: 703/866-4709 c: 703/304-1897

Myron Struck, 50, has been managing editor of States News Service for the last four years, and had previously worked for States in the 1970s and 1980s. He has served on the national staff of the Washington Post during the Reagan administration, covering federal agencies, served as managing editor of the newsletter publishing company CD Publications of Silver Spring, Md., served as managing editor of Roll Call, the independent Congressional newspaper, and as managing editor of the Manassas (Va.) Journal Messenger. Struck was also the founder and editor of Majority Rules, an independent newsletter focused on women in politics. He started his career in journalism with the Miami (Fla.) Herald in South Florida.

Carol Kaelin - Managing Editor & VP/COO
Carol@TargetedNews.com
518/356-5701 c: 518/423-3900

Carol M. Kaelin, 53, is a journalist and Internet entrepreneur. Kaelin's work has appeared in national magazines and newspapers including the Washington Post. She began a decade ago as a reporter for The Enterprise in Altamont, N.Y., a local weekly. Kaelin believes that some of the best journalism occurs at small independent newspapers. "Working at a small town paper, the importance of what you do is magnified in a very personal way," Kaelin said. "The person you quoted might be standing on line behind you in the supermarket. That quote had better be right. If not, you could be wearing a dozen eggs." Before embarking on her career as a journalist, Kaelin was the CFO of ATI Equities, an integrated entertainment company.

Kevin Meek - VP/Technology
kmeek@TargetedNews.com
703/538-1025

Kevin Meek, 39, is an experienced IT professional and entrepreneur who owns and operates Meek Consulting Inc., Arlington, Va. Meek Consulting provides information technology consulting services specializing in database-driven web applications. Meek also has over 17 years' experience managing application development projects for DoD clients. He created and maintains FairwayFiles.com, a free golf handicap website used by over 20,000 golfers worldwide.