• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Finn’s Final Folly?
Kansas City icon Henry W. Bloch contributed to the besmirchment of the business school that bears his name »

The already-lean ranks of the Kansas City Star get even thinner

January 29, 2015 by jimmycsays

There’s been another round of buyout/layoffs at The Star, I understand.

I don’t have it first hand — just don’t have any sources down there any more — but I get information from people who used to work there and remain in close contact with some of their former colleagues.

There have been several rounds of layoffs and buyouts since the mid-2000s, and, of course, this is a trend that has affected all major dailies, ever since readers and advertisers began defecting en masse to the Internet.

Let’s put The Star in perspective. In a recent piece on his Newsonomics blog, newspaper authority Ken Doctor wrote this:

“How big a hole is the U.S. daily newspaper industry in?

“We know the toll in newsroom jobs — about 20,000 lost in a little under a decade — and the fact that the industry as a whole took in about $26 billion less in 2014 than it did a decade earlier.”

Twenty-six billion less revenue between 2004 and 2014!! That says it all, doesn’t it?

…Anyway, my source — a good one — gave me this lineup of editorial employees who are out, or on the way out, as of this week.

Each of these employees is over 60, I feel sure.  

:: Alice Thorson, art critic in the Features Department. Thorson, a prolific writer, has been at the paper just short of 25 years. Although she’s been prolific, this is not a major loss, from my personal perspective. The Star’s arts and features coverage has been going downhill for decades. In my opinion — keep in mind I go back to the late 60s and early 70s — the decline began when The Star’s great architecture critic Donald Hoffman (I’m sure some of you remember him) took a buyout in 1990. When Hoffman left, I quit reading the arts section; it just didn’t hold any more interest for me. Don went on to write books, including several on Frank Lloyd Wright and some of the outstanding homes he designed.

KCUR has also weighed in on Thorson’s layoff. Reporter Laura Spencer quoted Kathy Lu, the features department editor as saying The Star was not abandoning arts criticism; that it would continue to work with freelance writers. Apparently overcome by candor — and perhaps disenchantment — Lu added, however, that Star readers “will probably not see as much” arts criticism…Once you get to a certain point in layoffs — and The Star is years past that — it’s futile to try to sell the “less is better” pitch. It’s unvarnished failure.

:: Steve Everly, energy reporter on the business desk. This is a huge loss. Everly has had many ground-breaking stories, including the blockbuster expose several years ago on “hot fuel” — retailers selling gasoline and diesel without adjusting the volume for temperature. (You don’t get your money’s worth in hot climates because the fuel expands.) As badly as I feel about Everly’s departure, I understand he’s had some health problems, so this is the right time for him to step aside.

steve

Everly

Everly’s loss has deeper implications for the paper. A decade or so ago, The Star had a powerful stable of more than 20 business-side reporters and editors. Now, it’s a broken-down barn — sorry to say and no offense to the capable folks who remain — consisting of three reporters and three editors. The reporters are Diane Stafford, Mark Davis and Joyce Smith. The editors are Keith Chrostowski, Greg Hack and Steve Rosen. In all fairness, each of those editors either does some reporting or writes a column, in addition to their editing chores.

Adding insult to injury, Star Business Weekly, a Tuesday institution for more than 20 years, is folding. Little wonder: Over the years it’s gone from as many as 48 tabloid pages per week to eight…Oh, and don’t hold your breath waiting for The Star to apprise us readers of Business Weekly’s demise; in all likelihood, it just won’t be there one Tuesday when you open the paper.

:: Randy Covitz, longtime sports writer. Randy has been an all-purpose reporter throughout his career. For several years, he had the Chiefs “beat.” Although never a standout, he’s always been reliable and very productive.

randy

Covitz

 

rob perschau

Perschau

:: Rob Perschau, the newsroom’s Information Technology expert. Without Rob’s help, scores of Star reporters and editors would have had to turn to manual labor because they couldn’t have made the transition from the IBM Selectric typewriter to the desktop computer. (I’m squarely in that group.) Rob is a former business reporter who jumped to IT at the dawn of the difficult changeover to computers in the newsroom. He’s an absolute wizard, as well as one of the nicest and most patient guys you’ll ever meet. I have to think he will be sorely missed.

Presiding over The Star’s emaciation is publisher Mi-Ai Parrish. I can’t criticize her too much because she’s simply carrying out commands — and hitting budget lines — coming out of McClatchy Inc. corporate offices in Sacramento. (McClatchy bought the Star and about 20 other Knight Ridder papers after the Knight Ridder chain put itself up for sale in 2006. (I retired at precisely the time that sale closed.)

parrish

Parrish

I have said before, however, that I am very disappointed in Parrish’s lack of leadership and particularly in her total lack of interest in trying to rebuild The Star’s corporate and civic profile. Along with other large local companies, the paper used to sponsor various arts organizations and big artistic events, and I, for one, always took great pride in seeing our name up there with the likes of Hallmark, Sprint, Burns & McDonnell, HNTB and others.

Yet, even with all the employee losses, the shrinking news hole and the bursting golden-egg of print advertising, The Star remains, by far, the most powerful news-gathering organization between St. Louis and Denver. Yes, it is better than the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Denver Post.

That said, the downward spiral is extremely discouraging to those of us who plied our trade at 18th and Grand for many years and loved being part of something that seemed magical when we plucked the paper off the front yard the next morning.

So, to those who are leaving the paper, best of luck to you. I know you’ll be happier and healthier in retirement or going on to something else.

To those of you who are staying and continuing to toil in unenviable circumstances, thank you, thank you, thank you. Hundreds of thousands of readers continue to reap the benefits of the great work you do every day.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

28 Responses

  1. on January 30, 2015 at 7:55 am Steve Everly

    Hi Fitz,

    If I may slightly clarify one thing. I did have a health issue this year but it was fixed and I’m well. I’ve been eager to leave the Star for some time because of all the changes, so it is a good thing for me. The three remaining business reporters are all excellent and I’m sure will continue to do fine work. But they can only do so much with all the losses the once-proud business desk has sustained. It is a shame.

    Steve Everly


    • on January 30, 2015 at 8:17 am jimmycsays

      Great to hear from you, Steve. And the best news, of all, of course, is that your health problem is behind you!

      As you say, Diane, Mark and Joyce are excellent reporters — and very good writers — and they will continue to serve The Star and the readers well. I would really like to see The Star boost the number of business reporters to at least five, though. Maybe Mi-Ai can figure out a way, with the cost savings from the departing senior editorial people, to go up one or two.

      Hope to see you around. Maybe at one of Perlmutter’s periodic lunch calls, attended mostly by former business reporters.


    • on February 1, 2015 at 8:24 pm John Altevogt

      Sorry to see you go. You made a very dull subject interesting and your journalism was impeccable.


  2. on January 30, 2015 at 8:31 am Mike Rice

    These are all huge losses and I’m very saddened to hear about it. You’re right about Rob Perschau. He is one of the most patient people I knew at The Star. He even tolerated the links of this technology-challenged scribe who could barely figure out how to turn on a computer back in the day.


    • on January 30, 2015 at 8:32 am jimmycsays

      Great testament to Rob. Man, we loved that guy!


  3. on January 30, 2015 at 9:09 am Jim Breed

    My first job was throwing the Star/Times. I read it every day until I dropped the paper in 2008. So I’m a little saddened by their demise. However, do you think their decline would be even a little bit diminished if they moderated their far left editorial stance? Gun control, abortion, capital punishment, hatred of all things Republican; doesn’t that get a little tiresome?


    • on January 30, 2015 at 11:42 am jimmycsays

      You could say that about The New York Times, too, but it has gotten stronger as the second-tier metropolitan dailies, like The Star and many others, have weakened. NYT successfully reinvented itself as a national paper 15 years ago or so, and it has paid off handsomely.

      I really don’t think The Star’s pronounced liberal tilt has been much of a factor in its depletion, although I can see how those on the right would raise the question.


      • on February 1, 2015 at 8:32 pm John Altevogt

        Fitz, I either added a llink to a previous column, or sent one to you that discussed tensions at the Times because the news folks thought the editorial staff was becoming an embarrassment to the newspaper and an impediment to their work.

        It would be one thing if what The Star’s editorial staff wrote was interesting, but it’s so doctrinaire and predictable that you know what they’re going to say without reading the column. Add to that some of their goofy endorsements like the felon convicted of public corruption over a former community college president for a seat on a community college board. Really?

        And yes it does have an impact on their depletion. I know many, many people who have dumped their subscriptions because of The Star’s editorial page. I rarely even visit the website anymore.


  4. on January 30, 2015 at 9:45 am Laura Hockaday

    Jim:
    The loss of more top people at The Star is sad, sad, sad. Where is the leadership at the helm? Or where is the helm?
    Laura


    • on January 30, 2015 at 11:37 am jimmycsays

      No money, no leadership, no helm…just a once-proud, incredibly strong company having drifted from the river onto a sandy shoal.


  5. on January 30, 2015 at 10:09 am Anne Sutton Canfield

    The loss of Alice Thorson is a huge loss to the visual arts community.


    • on January 30, 2015 at 11:34 am jimmycsays

      I’m no philistine, Anne, I’ve just never read much of The Star’s art, theater or movie criticism. I’m sure the arts community feels much differently.


  6. on January 30, 2015 at 11:38 am Doug Oswald

    Hi Fitz!
    Most of my contacts at The Star are gone as well. I appreciate you keeping us informed. Hope things are going well for you!

    Doug Oswald
    Former newsroom accountant


    • on January 30, 2015 at 11:44 am jimmycsays

      Good to hear from you, Doug. Unfortunately, the Metro budget is not nearly big enough any more to require the services of a newsroom accountant. A chaplain might be more in order.


  7. on January 30, 2015 at 1:15 pm GKH

    The NYT is not doing as well as you suppose. It laid off employees as recently as a month ago, when an insufficient number took the buyout offer. Similar to the Star, the NYT never lays off editorial staff or opinion writers, just the nuts and bolts folks.


  8. on January 30, 2015 at 3:56 pm Mike Rice

    For the record, Fitz, Donald Hoffmann left the paper in 1990 _ right before the Star/Times merger.


  9. on January 30, 2015 at 5:36 pm Bill Norton

    Fitz,
    Thanks for the update and the comments and the remembrances.

    I remember when we as reporters were held to some fairly rigorous ethical standards.

    Such standards don’t apply to The Star as a business: How can an institution slash and slash its staff, continue to shrink the news hole and the pages (which equals content) and yet charge more for a horribly diminished product?

    Given that, how can a reader take seriously the news-sides pretensions to have any moral authority?


    • on January 30, 2015 at 5:42 pm jimmycsays

      Great to hear from you, Bill. I hope you and Georgeanne are doing well. You and she were outstanding employees — reporter and copy editor respectively — for many years. She’s not there any longer, is she?


  10. on January 30, 2015 at 7:03 pm Gayle

    Very sad, indeed. I had a similar experience with one of my employers, and it was almost like a family falling apart. And speaking of lean and thinner, each weekday edition is starting to look like the emaciated Monday issue.


    • on January 30, 2015 at 8:52 pm jimmycsays

      It certainly makes you wonder if they will pull the plug on some of those print editions — Monday and Tuesday, perhaps? — and go with a “new and improved, bigger and better” Wednesday through Sunday print package — charging the same price, of course, as for a 7-day subscription. (Hate to be cynical but now that subscription income has become nearly as important as print advertising, subscription and rack prices have to keep heading north.)


  11. on January 31, 2015 at 1:35 am Rick Nichols

    Jim, Donald Hoffmann was among the eight who were pictured in one of the Feb. 28, 1990 issues of the paper, that being the last day the afternoon edition was published. That same group included my father. At any rate, the latest RIF is sad news and my heart goes out to both those who are leaving and those who are left behind to carry on.


    • on January 31, 2015 at 8:39 am jimmycsays

      I had completely forgotten the buyout — the first I was ever around in journalism — was the result of the merger of The Star and The Times. And if someone would have asked me about “Nick” Nichols, I would have said he was there until the mid-90s, at least. Big presence, hard to forget.


  12. on January 31, 2015 at 6:30 pm Rick Nichols

    P.S. – A paper that continues to lose staff through RIFs has no business sending a columnist and a photographer down to the Dominican Republic to do a feature on a baseball player of all things, especially if that columnist is relatively new to the staff and is being allowed to keep his job when more-tenured employees are losing theirs. Fact is, struggling newspapers really don’t need two sports columnists. I really don’t think two are necessary even in good times, but then again, I’m pretty “old school”.


  13. on January 31, 2015 at 6:32 pm Rick Nichols

    More P.S. – Also among the aforementioned group of eight were Frank Spurlock and Joe Henderson.


  14. on February 1, 2015 at 11:29 am Mike Rice

    Although I really liked the package on Yordano Ventura, Rick Nichols raises a very valid point. And it shows that the sports desk pretty much rules the show down there at 1729 Grand.


    • on February 1, 2015 at 12:59 pm jimmycsays

      Yes, and this week’s big throw — the Sunday centerpiece — is “A Nationa of Hagglers.”

      What the f—?


  15. on February 4, 2015 at 3:24 pm Rob

    Fitz,

    As a non-journalist the last 25 years, I never expect to see my name in a blog focused on journalism and the news. So, I’m a week late seeing this post.

    You were more than kind in your remarks, as were a couple of commenters. I should point out, though, that I planned to retire anyway in August and The Star was good enough to include me in the staff reduction. I am more than happy with that result.

    I loved my time at The Star. We’ve lost a lot of incredible talent over the years, but there are still a lot of top notch reporters and editors in the building. I wish them all well.

    My last bit of advice to them: “save often.”

    Rob Perschau


    • on February 4, 2015 at 4:23 pm jimmycsays

      That is a (an?) hilarious kicker, Rob. I put it in quotation marks so people would understand you’re giving technical, not financial, advice…Thanks for clarifying the circumstances of your departure. I’m glad we can put you in the category of “legitimate retirement.”

      I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been in that category had I stayed around under McClatchy.

      In any event…REBOOT!



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 563 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 563 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: