New KC Star publisher Tony Berg had his public “coming out” yesterday with an impressive appearance on KCUR’s Central Standard show.
Berg exuded the energy one would expect from a 38-year-old person who two months ago landed the most important job on the Kansas City media scene. Among other things, he acknowledged that The Star was facing challenges and was in a critical period of “transformation,” with the company’s emphasis shifting from print to digital.
Asked by host Gina Kaufmann to name some of the biggest challenges, Berg said: “The one that’s at the top of my priority list right now is our delivery. I’m not happy with where it’s at. That’s an area we’re working quickly to rectify.”
If you’ve been reading this blog in recent weeks, you know Berg vowed from the get-goo to address the delivery situation, which crumbled under the previous publisher, Mi-Ai Parrish. He and leaders of the “audience development” department have responded personally to people who have complained about delivery problems. With that attitude, I feel, they should be able to get things smoothed out and perhaps even regain a significant number of subscribers who dropped the paper out of frustration and disgust.
Unfortunately, there’s still the matter of skyrocketing subscription rates — upwards of $40 a month for a standard subscription, from what I’ve heard.
(I’ve been meaning to tell you that I finally got the retiree discount I was entitled to but somehow wasn’t getting after my 2006 retirement. It’s a good deal, and I wish everyone else could get a rate approaching mine…I also want to let you know that, in the wake of an email I sent, Berg got the dial-by-last-name directory reinstated on The Star’s automated telephone answering system.)
Berg
Also in the interview (you can queue up the audio on this page), Berg hinted that he might initiate something else I’ve been advocating. “To some degree, we’ve been our own worst enemy,” he said. “We haven’t done a great marketing campaign to be out there.”
Out there, as in drumming in to people through an advertising campaign that The Star is still the primary and most authoritative news source for a majority of area residents, whether in print form or online.
Kaufmann spent several minutes pressing Berg on how The Star could grow — and be successful in its transformation — as long as it continued laying off employees and offering buyouts.
“Is there an end point?” Kaufmann asked, referring to the downsizing, which began in 2008 and has not let up.
Berg deflected the line of questioning, repeatedly asserting that the situation should not be looked at as reduction but rather a redistribution and realignment of resources.
Just this week, The Star offered another round of editorial-side layoffs, with the goal of cutting five to 10 staff members. The deadline for applying for the buyout was yesterday, and Kauffman said on the air that theater critic Robert Trussell had decided to take the offer. Trussell has been in the Features Department more than 30 years. In recent years, features has also lost its full-time movie critic (Robert Butler), its fine arts critic (Alice Thorson) and its full-time music critic (Paul Horsley). None has been replaced; The Star has chosen to outsource those tasks to freelancers, and you can bet that’s what it will do now with theater criticism.
It’s too bad that when Kaufmann was interviewing Berg, she didn’t know what former KC Star investigative reporter Karen Dillon posted on Facebook Thursday night.
Paul
Dillon, now a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World, said other editorial-side employees who will take buyouts included Jody Cox, online editor, who has been with the paper about 20 years, and assistant sports editor Mark Zeligman, who has put in at least 20 years. But Dillon’s bombshell was that two of The Star’s four editorial-page writers, including editorial-page editor Steve Paul, are leaving. Paul has been with the paper more than 40 years. He was named editorial page editor 18 months ago.
Barb Shelly, the other departing editorial writer, has been with the paper more than 35 years. If Shelly and Paul are not replaced, it would leave The Star with only Lewis Diuguid and Yael Abouhalkah manning the editorial page, which sets the paper’s political tone and civic compass. I’ve got to assume Berg and Star editor Mike Fannin will fill at least one of the editorial-page posts being vacated. Otherwise, how could The Star continue putting out a decent editorial page? Already, the number of staff-generated editorials has dropped significantly, and the Monday Op-Ed page has been dropped.
Shelly
Trussell
Cox
Zeligman
When Tony Berg said The Star has challenges, yes, it sure does. It’s going to take all of Berg’s youthful energy and every bit of whatever resourcefulness he has to keep The Star moving forward.
By God, he’s determined, though, and seems very intelligent, and you can’t underestimate the significance of strength at the top of an organization. It was reassuring for me to hear him say on the radio, “It certainly won’t be on my watch that The Star goes down.”
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim:
I’m shocked to learn Bob Trussell, Barb Shelly and Steve Paul are leaving.
The paper is virtually finished, in my opinion.
What a tragedy to hear about those three.
A sad, sad day.
Laura
Laura — I ran into Steve at Aixois Wednesday morning and during a brief chat I asked if he was under pressure. He smiled and said, “Nah.”
Now I know why…
…But, you know, two of the three you mentioned — Steve and Barb — have got to be 65 or older, and Trussell is about 60, I would guess. So, retirement had to be tempting. I never thought I would retire at 60, but attitudes change with circumstances — your own and a company’s.
Sadly, I can only interpret Mr. Berg’s “reassurance” as assurance he will abandon ship just as the previous captain did when the bilge pumps failed. Throwing able-bodied sailors over the side now does little to stanch the waves of change. Her fate is inevitable. Once the pride of the fleet, our beloved Star is foundered. The decks awash. The band isn’t playing. The admiralty (the NYSE) is already moving to deslist her name from the rolls. There is only one lifeboat remaining. The one atop wheelhouse. And it’s reserved for McClatchy officers. It’s near time to strike the colors.
Those are some wonderful purple passages, Joe. Thank you for the morning entertainment.
Jim, I believe that Steve Paul is 63 and Barb is about 60. They’re definitely in the “retirement age range,” especially under the circumstances. Of course, that doesn’t detract from the fact that their departures represent a great loss to the Star and its readers.
Thanks, Julius…Maybe they will weigh in with their precise ages; we need DETAILS!
Yes, Jim, we’d better nail down all the details – including which municipalities they live in – before we get slammed in the “Casey Gram!”
I loved the Casey Gram, Julius…(Talking about the daily, in-house critique written by the late, great Donald D. “Casey” Jones.)
Here’s an example of his contribution to the quality of the paper…I once interviewed Kansas City-born composer Virgil Thomson, who was about 90 at the time. In the story, I said something like, “Despite being 90, Thomson is still sharp and witty.”
In that day’s critique, posted on the bulletin board, Casey complimented the overall story but said something like: “Now the cudgel: Just because a person is elderly, you cannot assume his mental acuity has dimmed.”
…Another reason I liked Casey: He hired me in late summer 1969. I think the turning point in the interview was when he asked me what magazines I read. The first thing out of my mouth was “The New Yorker.” His eyes lit up and he scratched a note on a “half-sheet” with his red flare pen. Nearly 50 years later, here I is.
Great memories, Jim. And don’t forget this: It’s a grocery – not a grocery store.
Somebody better tell Wikipedia!
Dictionary.com says “also called grocery store. a grocer’s store.”
Either is OK, but from his grave, Casey rules.
OMG.
Yeah, if you didn’t know better, you’d think there’d be some job opportunities there.
Love, love, love the references to dear Casey. He was one of a kind and The Star benefited greatly from his presence. As to those who’ve most recently accepted a buyout, when I read their names, I said aloud, “Oh, my god!!!” I didn’t have the privilege of working with Mr. Cox, but Bob, Steve, Barb and Mark are some of the best. Their departures are a great loss for the paper and I wish them all the best in the next chapter of their lives. As many of us can tell them, things are great on this side of the fence!
Here is the text of a note in my delivered newspaper today (March 19) from the carrier, David Solomon: “I just wanted to take this time to inform you that my last delivery of the Kansas City Star newspaper will be on March 20 (he did not place the comma) 2016. And to thank you for your Patronage (the capital P belongs to Mr. Solomon) for the last several years.”
That’s not too surprising, Fred…Solomon was my carrier for many years, and I think he and his family have been carriers for about 40 years. He, too, is “of retirement age,” but he became disgusted with The Star last year, after Mi-Ai Parrish instituted a signifiant change, which put the carriers at arm’s length from The Star. The carriers were no longer paid by McClatchy but by the supernumerary distributors, who had to incorporate to manage the carriers in their clusters.
Solomon told me the carriers got a pay cut and, of course, hated the loss of control at the grass-roots level. Many carriers quit, Solomon said, and were replaced by unqualified replacements, some of whom did not have trucks and loaded the papers in their personal cars. It was not uncommon, he said, to see carriers winging papers out the windows of cars whose frames were sinking inches from the ground, under the weight of hundreds of pounds of newsprint.
“The new system has not worked from day one,” a disgusted Solomon told me.
That’s the depth of the problem that Tony Berg has inherited.
…Now that Solomon is retiring, I can tell you he was the source for a segment of this Oct. 12 post I wrote about various problems at The Star and McClatchy.
I can avow that the new distribution system is getting worse, not better. I’ve kept personal logs of the delivery times the past several months and sent them to Phil Schroder at the Star. It has become really bad this month. Last Sunday delivery was between 11:20 am and 12:45 pm, Tuesday there was no delivery, Thursday delivery was between 10:20 and 10:30 am, only the Star and no NY Times delivery on Friday (which was around 9 am) and it’s nearly 10 am today (Sunday) with no paper in sight. Mr. Schroder told me they are in the process of terminating the distributor in my area. It can not happen soon enough. If I could just get the paper by 7 am everyday, I’d be very happy.
I got the same note in my paper and was very sorry to learn that Mr. Solomon is retiring. He was a great carrier and I’m sad to learn he is one more “casualty” — even by his own choice.
Berg’s repeated assertion that the situation should be looked at as a redistribution and realignment of resources rather than a reduction is an offense to my good buddy Noah Webster. The Star’s not continuing to cut jobs; it’s strategically streamlining, redistributing and realigning its human resources, yielding an employee count that’s moving steadily to the left on the number line. All is well.
The newspaper today (March 21) arrived at 7:15 a.m., about two hours later than with the former carrier. The person who threw it was in a newer sedan, not the busted van of previous.
With the paper came a note from James Schulte, the new carrier. I will paraphrase it, and add that Mr. Schulte gained points from my by including (twice) his cell phone number and urging me to call him directly about any issues such as missed, damaged or wet papers.
“Your long time carrier Dave has move to another route,” Mr. Schulte’s note said.
Mr. Schulte said he is learning this new route in my neighborhood (Brookside). And I could see that as his car cruised slowly, hazard lights flashing. He said the paper might not arrive at its usual time for the next week.
“I’ll be working real(ly) hard to get it to your house asap and if you think I missed you please feel free to call me while I’m still in your area delivering papers.”
Plus points there, too. We’ll see.
I hope that sedan holds up.
I heard about 5 more layoffs/buyouts today: Alan Bavley, Greg Hack, Brian Burnes, Jim Fussell and Mary Schulte.
I heard the same, Maneesh. That’s too much flesh to extract from an already-lean operation. One way or another, McClatchy must go. Either that or the paper shrivels up and print goes away.
It seems that having the paper shrivel up and go away (in print form) is exactly the plan. But I don’t know how you generate enough material for the online product unless you have sufficient staff. Regardless of whether the goal is to keep printing a paper or to drive readers to the web, the content has to be compelling and distinctive from other sources. That becomes even more true when the readers have the entire world of media at their fingertips because they were forced to go there. This is just a truly nasty death spiral.
It’s easier to cover up deficiencies and lack of original copy on the Web, don’t you think? You can run all kinds of pablum from all manner of content services, including Associated Press, NYT and McClatchy and get away with it.
But when you run a glut of that in the print edition, the readers recognize it as a cover-up and a dearth of locally generated stories. That seems to be where the print edition of The Star is headed. Gannett has already perfected that system, spoon feeding generic content to its papers as replacement for locally generated stories.
I think I agree with you the death spiral has accelerated with the recent buyouts and layoffs.
I love this piece. It took me to places I thought I had walled up. It’s great to reconnect:
https://tommytomlinson.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/goodbye-600/
So, the paper yesterday (March 22) was on the sidewalk at 7:15 a.m. when I looked for it.
Today (March 23), no paper.
Aha! This gave me the chance to call the new carrier, James Schulte, on his cell phone (whose number he provided two days ago in his introductory note).
Poor Mr. Schulte has moved on. After so short a time, his cell phone recording says he is no longer my carrier and refers me to the internal toll-free number at the Star. Reminds me of the kid the newsroom hired years ago from out East. As this lad drove across the Mississippi River bridge at St. Loouis, he realized the error of his ways, turned around and returned East, never having set foot at his new job in KC. I think he did call to let folks know.
That would be the end of the story, were it not for Rosanne, my wife, also a Star vet, who previously had contacted the Star when one recent Sunday we got the Saturday A-section and Saturday sports where the Sunday sections should have been.
Rosanne fired off an email to Publisher Berg, and received an email reply within an hour.
Saith Mr. Berg:
“I’m extremely disappointed to hear about the delivery challenges you’re having and our team is looking into it now. I also want to apologize on behalf of The Star. I assure you this is at the top of my list to get addressed and fixed. In the last 30 days we’ve made significant changes in that department and are bringing in a team of people, including ones I’ve worked with in the past. I trust this group and believe they will get us back to the level of service you and The Star are accustomed to. I appreciate your support of The Star and ask for just a little more patience as we get this new team up to speed. If you’d like to discuss this further please do reach out to me.”
GFred again, writing: I’m just back at 11:49 a.m. from the curb where there still was no Wednesday newspaper.
I mean infernal toll-free number…
Now that’s a fine kettle of fish…
The lad you refer to who turned around at the Mississippi and never set foot in The Star newsroom came to be known as “Wrong Way Turcol.” The next year he won the Pulitzer prize for General News Reporting at the Virginian- Pilot and Ledger-Star in Norfolk, Va., for an expose on City Hall corruption. Lad had an uncanny sense of direction.
I never heard that story before. It sounded apocryphal, but now Dalton has VF’d it.