No jaywalking. No umbrellas. No complaining about the rain.
“West Seattle” is basically one word—read: Wesseattle—and there’s no apostrophe “s” at the end of the first word of “Pike Place Market.” It’s I-5, not “The 5.” (This is not California.) And when Mount Rainier is clearly visible in all its majestic glory, be sure to observe to anyone who might be listening, “The mountain’s out.”
These are just a few of Seattle’s unspoken rules, as noted in a fun reader engagement story Vonnai Phair (’21 Comm.) produced for the Seattle Times, where she was the morning reporter until early January. Phair covered breaking news as well as general assignment stories, such as what it’s like to fly with the Blue Angels and what Seattle teens wear during the first week of school, as well as what you ought to know if you live in or around the state’s biggest city.
Phair curated more than 2,000 reader responses—some 500 via Instagram alone—for that particular piece, which ran March 29, 2023. It remains the story with the most reader responses in the paper’s recent history. Phair transferred all the responses to a spreadsheet, broke the information into sections, analyzed the data, and wrote a lively story that really resonated with Seattleites.
“We got almost 700 comments on that story,” Phair says. “I’ve never received so many emails on a story to this day. People said they cut it out of the newspaper and put it on their fridge. An editor said she overheard people talking about it at a bar. This story had such a large outreach and reminded me of exactly why I wanted to be a reporter in Seattle.”
Phair started her career at the Seattle Times just two days after graduation from Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. She worked as the features producer, then features news assistant. In the morning reporter role, she was “the first reporter to log on weekdays,” working from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. The first hour of her job was usually the busiest, dubbed “‘a.m. mayhem’ just because it can be so chaotic.”
She typically had 30 or 40 minutes to write stories for the Seattle Times morning newsletter, emailed out around 7:15 weekdays. Phair looked at news that happened overnight, such as traffic accidents or shootings. “My record is five stories, all about 200 words, in that first hour.”
In all, she says, she wrote more than 650 stories, influencing more than 6,000 subscriptions, from the end of 2022 to the end of 2024.
While she enjoyed breaking news, her favorite stories were lively, engaging features. “I think I’m strongest…when I can use my voice and really let my personality come through,” says Phair, a board member of the Seattle Association of Black Journalists. She was also a member of the Seattle Times Equity Team, now in its third year. The committee serves as a liaison between employees and management on equity issues.
In general, newsroom employees are more likely to be White and male than US workers overall, according to the Pew Research Center. Most US reporters—some 76 percent—are White. Another 8 percent are Hispanic, while 6 percent are Black, and 3 percent are Asian. Phair, a first-generation college student from Auburn, represents a recent trend: the younger generation of newsroom employees shows more racial, ethnic, and gender diversity than their older colleagues.
Phair spoke about digital audience engagement on a panel at the 2024 Murrow Symposium. “I feel like I am still so close in age to those students and want to do whatever I can to help them,” she says. “I’m still young and have so much to learn.”
At WSU, she was vice president of recruitment for her sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, worked at Cable 8 and Luxe, the student-run fashion magazine, and completed an internship in the president’s office. She also wrote two articles for Washington State Magazine. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Murrow College. I’m truly thankful for it every day.”
In mid-January, Phair left the Seattle Times to join Governor Bob Ferguson’s communications team. “There are no words to describe my gratitude for landing at the Seattle Times so soon after graduating from WSU and the wonderful experience that followed. I’m excited to take all I’ve learned with me into my next role on the other side of the communications industry, where I hope to make a difference within the state and beyond.”