For once, there was a lot of news about The Kansas City Star in the Star.
The Sunday edition shed some light on the muddled situation with longtime columnist C.W. Gusewelle, and it announced the addition of five young journalists.
First, about those hires…I was pleasantly surprised to see The Star “toot its own horn.” In all my years of working at and now following The Star, I have never seen a story about the hiring of reporters. Stories have been limited almost exclusively to the comings and goings of upper-level journalists and administrators, such as publishers, editors, managing editors, editorial page editors and business-side vice presidents.
I think the decision to write about these new hires owes to the avalanche of criticism in recent years about reductions in the staff and the actual size of the paper. Because of budgetary cuts by its owner, the McClatchy Co., The Star has been laying people off and offering buyouts since 2008, two years after McClatchy purchased the Knight Ridder chain, which previously owned The Star.
It’s been a depressing era to work at The Star, and everyone down at 18th and Grand has felt the pressure. Think of it like an ancient ship, where banks of oarsmen provided the power, but rowers kept disappearing during the ocean crossing until only a skeletal crew was left to pull the weight that had been borne by hundreds.
Things have changed for the better, though. The first sign was several months ago, when the four -page In Depth insert was added to the A-section Tuesday through Friday. That has deepened the news hole, although it still irritates the hell out of me that on those days the editorial and op-ed pages are not at the back of the section, where they should be. I frequently find myself rifling through the section looking for the editorial page.
Another big change, of course, was the departure of do-nothing publisher Mi-Ai Parrish last year and the naming of young (38 when he took over in January) and energetic new publisher Tony Berg. From the outset, Berg voiced strong support for the newsroom and hard-hitting stories, and he has tackled the circulation problems head-on. In March — undoubtedly with Berg’s blessing and perhaps at his instigation — The Star named Greg Farmer as managing editor, a post that had been left vacant since Steve Shirk retired a year earlier.
Ian Cummings
In addition — last year, I believe — The Star hired a young reporter named Ian Cummings whose byline has become a consistent presence in the paper. Coincidentally, he had Sunday’s lead story, a provocative and disturbing take-out on the dangerous levels of lead poising in Kansas City area children.
Another hopeful sign was McClatchy posting “help-wanted” ads to fill two editorial-page vacancies after the retirements of Steve Paul and Barb Shelly. (On the not-so-good-news side of that development, a friend of mine, a person with outstanding credentials, applied five weeks ago and has not received a response or any kind — not even an acknowledgment. Bad form but not surprising.)
I have to admit I got worried anew toward the end of the Kansas Legislature’s session, however, when I noticed that Topeka correspondent Ed Eveld, who was assigned that beat about a year ago, wasn’t writing any stories. The Star was again picking up legislative reports filed by a reporter for the Wichita Eagle, another McClatchy paper.
I called a friend at The Star, and the friend told me Eveld was still at The Star but had taken an editing job on the sports desk. In addition, I learned, The Star was hiring a former intern, Hunter Woodall, to take over the Topeka post.
About the same time, Steve Vockrodt, a standout reporter at The Pitch, announced he was was joining The Star’s staff as a business reporter.
I had no idea, until Sunday, that The Star had hired three other journalists. They are Katy Bergen, another former Star intern who is now a general assignment reporter; Ashley Scoby, a former Sports Illustrated intern who is primarily covering high school sports for The Star; and Maria Torres, a former MLB.com intern who now is The Star’s digital and social media editor.
…Let’s hear a round of applause for the new hires; it’s good to see a few new oarsmen on the benches.
**
Now, regarding Gusewelle…Most of you know he hadn’t written a new Sunday column in months. In his absence, The Star ran old columns of his, along with a tag line saying his column would return.
Well, it returned Sunday, but it’s possible Sunday’s column could be his last. He wrote: “In these past months, I have been dealing with chronic health conditions. Time spares none of us.”
He said he would continue to “contribute to The Star as time permits” but that his weekly column was over.
Gusewelle
A friend of mine, who knows Gusewelle (pronounced Gus-well) very well, told me recently he has long had breathing problems and is on oxygen much of the time…When I got to The Star in 1969, it was the proverbial smoke-filled newsroom, “Gus” was one of many people puffing away. (One of the smartest things I ever did was give up cigarettes in 1964, immediately after the surgeon general’s report on smoking came out.)
Gus has had a run of more than 60 years at The Star. How he maintained his connection that long I will never know or understand…He’s got a huge following, and I’m sure all readers of this blog join me in wishing Gus good luck and congratulating him on a phenomenal career. In a way, as far as Kansas City is concerned, he’s the Ernest Hemingway who stayed.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim:
It’s great about all the new hires. Hopefully, Gus’s health will improve and his new book will be a great success.
Ed Eveld was doing a terrific job in Topeka, covering the legislature and breaking news. I don’t know why he changed jobs unless the commute was getting too much. He was an esteemed colleague in FYI and did some great stuff, often on deadline, To help put his 3 kids through college, he took an additional job as a waiter at the American Restaurant. I don’t know when he had any time to sleep. He is a great husband and father and has been an asset for The Star for many years.
All best,
Laura
The person I spoke with said the commute was responsible for his decision to switch jobs. He’s always wanted to be in town…I think he worked at Manny’s at some point -before or after the American.
I love Gusewelle; always have. His columns almost never fail to move me. I found his request for funds a bit discomforting. Is that common as one sets out to write a book?
On another note, are you going to weigh in on Orlando?
That struck me as extremely odd, too, Gayle. And, no, it’s not common. It tells me publishers are not stepping forward to take a chance on it. There are a number of ways to self-publish now, including publishing individual book copies as orders come in. He ought to go that route, in my opinion, instead of extending a tin cup in the newspaper.
…I haven’t formed a substantive line of thought on Orlando — other than feelings of disgust on one hand and deep pain on the other. You?
I thought his other books had been fairly successful, so it would be surprising that a publisher wouldn’t step up. Heaven knows we’ve seen worse on bookstore shelves. I just hope this didn’t sully his reputation.
As for Orlando, everyone seems to think they know how to stop these nightmares we keep going through, yet they continue. What is happening to our society?
I think his reputation will be just fine…His plea for funding just has the appearance of a final — perhaps desperate — attempt to stay relevant.
Gayle, promise me you will let me know when it’s time for me to pack up my pencils and stop sounding off.
…That spontaneous reference to pencils reminds me of something a top-drawer reporter for the old Kansas City Times told me decades ago when referring to a certain newsroom employee getting elevated to the post of city editor.
“He couldn’t carry my pencils,” the reporter sneered.
I think Mr. Gusewelle is still as relevant as he’s ever been, and so are you.
The hiring of six reporters is nice and I wish all of them well. But it will not make up for all the institutional memory that it has shoved out the door over the last eight years. There are still a numerous amount of stories that are not being covered and many others that are being covered inadequately. I’m sure McClatchy thinks you can cover a community of 1.5 million people with only a few dozen reporters. But you can’t cover it adequately.
The hiring of six reporters is nice and I wish all of them well. But it will not make up for all the institutional memory that it has shoved out the door over the last eight years. There are so many stories that are not being covered and many others that are being covered inadequately. I’m sure McClatchy thinks you can cover a community of 1.5 million people with only a few dozen reporters. But you can’t cover it adequately.
By our earlier count, Mike, I think they’d be at about two dozen now. It would be a big jump if they got to “a few” rather than “a couple.”
Thanks for correcting me on my semantics, Fitz.
Really, deeper use of your insights on comings and goings on the newsroom stage here is needed…perhaps your “first draft” on history “mind” is rejecting truthful analysis. Jouranalistic egos, the writer as artist, the fight for column inches, and “cos-play” in newsroom are all fertile subjects with the cast of characters presented in this dispatch…which reminds me of the time, it was the night shift, I had just ordered chili at Ed’s lunch, when the guy beside me says….
That would be Ed’s Slunch, Ghost writer.