About Us

UMR printing history exceeds 150 years
For more than 150 years, UMR has helped churches, church agencies and other groups communicate their stories of ministry and service. UMR Communications began as a regional Texas Methodist newspaper in the 1840’s and has expanded to serve many denominations and organizations throughout the world.

In 1847, The Texas Christian Advocate and Brenham Advertiser was printed by the Rev. Robert B. Wells, as a private venture. The following year, the newspaper came under the auspices of the church and finally evolved into the present-day United Methodist Reporter, currently published by UMR Communications. During its 150 years, The Texas Christian Advocate, and its successors—The Christian Advocate and The Texas Methodist—weathered political storms, paper shortages, fires and several changes in ownership and editors while remaining the major source of communication among Texas Methodists.

Today, The United Methodist Reporter is recognized as a source of international religion news and a national forum for United Methodist opinion about faith issues.

Technology brings new products and services
As technology has advanced, UMR Communications has become a multi-faceted religious communications enterprise. At the heart of UMR Communications are the church newspaper editions mailed to church members’ homes. Other services include customized editions; design and production of brochures, catalogs, and other promotional materials; web page design; bound volume printing, and digital resources.

UMR began offering communication education and training in 1981 with the founding of the Institute for Church Communications. The ecumenical weekly, The National Christian Reporter, was also created that year to serve the needs of other denominations. The United Methodist Review, begun in 1984, offers a biweekly option.

Reporter Interactive, begun in February 1996, is an electronic periodical, containing the best material from The United Methodist Reporter and The National Christian Reporter. The United Methodist WorldWide News supplement for independent newspapers was first offered in 1996.

Lumicon, a division of UMR, provides digital worship resources for churches. In addition to expanding UMR’s product lines, Lumicon works through the Institute for Church Communications to teach churches to produce their own resources and improve their over-all communications.

Call 1-800-947-0207, or email your questions to info@umr.org to find out how UMR can assist you with your communication needs.

OUR MISSION

To enable the Christian community to make disciples for Christ by providing communication services and resources.

OUR VISION

Transforming the church through
Excellence in content and production,
Empowering ministry through quality worship resources, digital media and education,
Providing a forum for open discussion of current issues, and
Bringing the light of Christ to the world.

OUR CORE VALUES

UMR Communications values the faithful pursuit of the mission of the Church, evangelistic creativity for the needs of contemporary culture, editorial freedom, respect for diverse opinions and a heritage of tolerance and service.

Reporter Interactive is published by UMR Communications Inc.
Sarah Wilke, President & CEO
1221 Profit Drive (new location as of April 21, 2006)
Dallas TX 75247
(800) 947-0207
(214) 630-0079 FAX

National news: news@umr.org

Advertising: Jenni Myers, jmyers@umr.org

Circulation: Becky Aguilar, baguilar@umr.org

To submit local or regional news, contact your church editor or annual conference office

Robin Russell, Managing Editor began overseeing the United Methodist Reporter in September 2005. She was a freelance writer for The Dallas Morning News’ Religion section in 2004 and 2005, and the religion writer for the Longview News-Journal from 1997 to 2003. Robin has received first-place writing awards from the Religion Newswriters Association, the Texas Headliners Foundation, the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Dallas Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators; a second-place writing award from the Amy Foundation; and she has been a finalist twice for the Dallas Press Club awards. A journalism graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has led seminars on covering religion and been a mentor for reporters new to the beat. She has a master's degree from the University of Texas at Tyler, and has taught journalism at LeTourneau University. She loves to read, watch movies, travel and indulge her dogs. She and her husband make their home in East Dallas, along with Robin's son.

Bill Fentum, Associate Editor has been with the UMR staff since 1985. A graduate of the radio, television and film program at the University of Texas, Bill specializes in writing movie reviews and covering the film industry. He frequently attends film screenings for the press in Hollywood and New York. In addition to his film reviews, Bill has written extensively about faith responses to pop-culture trends. Bill has been an associate editor at the Reporter since 2001. He began his career as a proofreader, pagination trainer and Web site contributor. Due in large part to Bill's work, the Reporter has also been recognized for excellence in Media Review by the Associated Church Press. His work regularly appears in the Resources section of the United Methodist Reporter. Bill is also an avid film fan and operates a movie-related Web site in his spare time. Bill is a member at Plymouth Park United Methodist Church in Irving, Texas.

Mary Jacobs, Associate Editor is a former longtime freelance writer for the award-winning Religion section of the Dallas Morning News. Mary has covered a wide range of faith topics and has contributed lead stories, features and opinion columns for the News’ Religion section. She has been an occasional contributor for Religion News Service. In 2004, Mary was named Religion Communicator of the Year by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Religion Communicators Council. A native of Ohio, Mary earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s of business administration from Case Western Reserve University. She has also worked as an associate director of communications for Bain & Company in Boston, and was a news producer for WJW-TV, a CBS affiliate in Cleveland. She and her family are members of University Park United Methodist Church in Dallas.

Susan Scheib, Copy Editor recently retired from her full-time position as Associate Editor, but will continue helping edit the Reporter Resources section on a part-time basis. She hopes to spend more time traveling with her husband and performing in area community orchestras. Susan has earned several national awards, including awards of excellence from the Associated Church Press for news and feature writing, as well as awards of merit from the United Methodist Association of Communicators. She came on board with UMR as a copy editor in January 2000 to help with the extra workload during the General Conference, and was promoted to associate editor in August 2001. A California native, Susan has a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and a master’s in humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. She is a former writer for the late Dallas Times-Herald. She had also been an instructor in English as a Second Language with the Dallas Community College District.