Finally, The Kansas City Star is starting to “matriculate the ball down the field.” (Credit for that magical turn of phrase goes to the late Hank Stram, longtime KC Chiefs coach, who was taped saying it on Jan. 12, 1970, when the Chiefs soundly beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.)
Today, the paper announced in a story posted online it was adding four full-time people to the editorial page and one part-time person, which will boost the editorial board from two full-time employees to six full-time employees and one part-time.
The story also mentioned, without explanation, the pending hiring of an eighth board member.
Here’s the new editorial board line-up (minus the pending hire):
:: Tony Berg, publisher, who let the page to slide into near oblivion the last few months and now is largely responsible for restoring the editorial page’s relevance.
:: Colleen McCain Nelson, vice-president and editorial page editor, who began working late last year and will have day-to-day responsibility for reinvigorating the page and creating a collaborative atmosphere in which the new staff can flourish.
:: Dave Helling, chief political reporter, who joined The Star in 2005 after many years as a TV reporter.
:: Steve Kraske, once-a-week columnist who went to part-time status a few years ago and will continue dividing his time among The Star, his “Up to Date” program on KCUR-FM, and UMKC, where teaches.
:: Mary Sanchez, longtime Metro columnist. She has been with the paper nearly 32 years.
:: Melinda Henneberger, a newcomer who most recently was a columnist at USA Today. She was born and raised in southern Illinois, and her husband, Bill Turque, is a former KC Star reporter. Turque has been a reporter for The Washington Post the last 14 years. (The Star’s story does not say if Turque will continue at The Post but indicates both he and Henneberger are moving to the Kansas City area.)
:: Derek Donovan, who has been The Star’s readers’ representative the last 12 years.
**
To be sure, this is a bold strike for Berg and Nelson and should be welcome news to Star readers, who haven’t seen a locally written editorial in many weeks. (Today’s story said staff-written editorials would resume Jan. 22.)
I applaud Berg for loosening the purse strings to hire at least one additional employee (two, if the mysterious eighth editorial board member comes to fruition). Beyond that, here are the pluses and minuses of these moves, as I see it.
…As I said in a recent post, Helling and Kraske will bring a ton of experience and credibility to the editorial page. They’re both polished writers and have scores of contacts and sources.
Sanchez carries an almost equally high profile by dint of her weekly column. She is a plodding writer, however, and probably will have trouble arousing readers intellectually as an opinion writer…Here, for example is part of a paragraph she wrote last week about a teen leadership program, called Anytown, which is being revived:
“It demanded area teenagers to be deeply contemplative about their opinions. It guided them to understand influences involved with how they formed viewpoints and helped them assess if their thoughts could uphold to factual scrutiny.”
Really, when a professional writes a paragraph like that, he or she needs to go back, recognize it sucks and rewrite it.
Melinda Henneberger
Henneberger sounds like she could be a good hire, but, as far as job stability, she has been like a butterfly on the wing from one flower to the next. Her last job — writing a column at USA Today — lasted all of five months. (I hope she had a chance to introduce herself around before giving her notice.)
Previously, she worked for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, Bloomberg Politics and Roll Call (a paper published in Washington D.C. from Monday to Friday when Congress is in session and on Mondays during recess)…With her track record, I doubt she’ll ever qualify for a pizza and sheet-cake retirement party at 18th and Grand. If she does, bully for her.
From The Star’s story, it sounds like Derek Donovan will essentially replace Lewis Diuguid, who resigned as an editorial board member last year. One of Diuguid’s main jobs was editing the letters to the editor, and Donovan inherits that duty, which he had before becoming public editor in 2004. The Star’s story doesn’t expand on Donovan’s other duties, only to say, “He will end his role as the newspaper’s public editor.”
The story does not say if the paper will hire or name a new public editor — a position that calls for occasional critical evaluation of published stories that become controversial for one reason or another. I seriously doubt that Berg will authorize the hiring of a new public editor, and, to be frank, it won’t make much difference if he doesn’t because readers benefitted very little from Donovan’s scaredy-cat tap dancing around controversial stories.
…On the whole, though, this is a good, fresh start for The Star’s editorial page. For the sake of the employees and the readers, I hope the page becomes robust again, like it was before it stalled and began to spiral down a few years ago.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Will Tony Berg dictate the same right-wing slant he demonstrated in the last Missouri election? Apparently, that’s the political/philosophical approach he finds congenial and I can’t imagine anyone who was comfortable at the Wall Street Journal objecting to it. If so, it will be a total waste of at least two of the new hires.
It’s interesting that you singled out Sanchez for criticism leaving Helling and Kraske alone. Those two basically mirror each other in their public policy opinions with a little more edge to Helling. Kraske, who I long ago stopped listening to on KCUR, can be infuriating with his near puritanical desire to be objective on most every issue. At least Sanchez has some moxie to take on controversial subjects and not write like she’s afraid to offend anyone.
The “big two” will now shed the “objectivity” they are required to bring to their news stories (as opposed to their columns) and, I feel sure, will dig deep, gradually, and locate their strong editorial voices.
Sanchez, on the other hand, will come out firing and say head-scratching things, like how important it is for thoughts to “uphold to factual scrutiny.”
I know you’re old school but I’ve always preferred the Molly Ivins philosophy: Objectivity is impossible, just “be fair and factual.”
Fitz, This is overkill. Too many for the page. Is there that much left to say? More later, perhaps.
Well, it would be four (or five, if they hire the additional person referenced in The Star’s story) full-time people writing editorials, including Nelson.
Derek will pad the masthead, as will Kraske, to some extent.
Berg is obviously battling back against the waves of criticism he has incurred since taking the page down to, uh, himself.
Nothing, NOTHING fresh here…When you can find all the well-written-all-angles-all-insider-expert-opinion writing in a good “readers-comment” driven website…then what is a current editorial writer’s true purpose in 2017? The “expert-lecturer” format is as relevant as teaching your child the Houlihan Throw.
To me, the current, most readable, most relevant style of opinion churning is reading an interesting, opinionated take on a subject, written by a low-pretention, honest, committed journalist…and then reading the reader comments, followed by — what else? — follow-ups from the journalist.
Could Charlie be talking about the low-pretention JimmyCsays and his humble followers???
If so, we accept the compliment with deep gratitude…
“Turque has been a reporter for The Washington the last 14 years. ”
There’s a newspaper actually called that?
As to the ombudsman role, I’d like to see it filled with someone with both a more intellectual heft and spine than Donovan. But given the lack of ombudsmen generally, like you, I don’t see The Star back-filling the position.
My team of copy editors is on the job. I don’t know how you got to that error before Gayle…
She’s sleeping in?
Evidently I can be replaced.
I’m just concerned that Mr. Altevogt is in the throes of an apoplectic episode over Donovan and unable to communicate.
Almost 24 hours since posting something about The Star’s editorial board and not one response from Altevogt. I don’t know whether to rejoice or file a missing person’s report.
Mayhaps M. Altevogt interviewed for a position on the board and is hesitant to speak out lest he inadvertently scramble his own eggs?
The dismantling of the editorial board was a clear sign of misguided (or incompetent) leadership and another chapter in the dysfunction and decline of the Star.
But in the end, it doesn’t matter — and neither does this reconstruction of the board. The main problem is the downward cycle of less advertising, smaller circulation, fewer reporters and editors, and major gaps in news coverage.
Reviving the editorial board into a robust fount of opinion will not bring readers back if the rest of the news pages are devoid of in-depth reporting or even basic day-to-day coverage of the area’s institutions. (And, in light of the spartan staffing levels on the metro desk, having this many editorial writers seems bloated. Was this a promise to Colleen Nelson that Berg will be unable to afford in the long term?)
That being said, it is very unlikely that the newly appointed editorial board members will stray very far from the conventional. Helling, Kraske, Sanchez and Donovan are known quantities to Star readers, and their track records don’t provide much evidence of the passion and strongly defended opinions that would make the editorial pages transcend the blandness found in most newspaper opinionists.
Mike: Re Altevogt…I share your joy/concern. Mostly concern…John, John, are you there??? He wouldn’t have bolted for Hearne, would he? Nah, that’s a fool’s mission.
It’s nice to be missed, but since my adoring public demands a comment, here goes.
My preference is that they should get rid of the editorial page completely. Every dollar they spend there is a dollar not spent doing the one thing newspapers can do better than anyone else, and that is create thoroughly researched, original news.
Local TV news programs are a poor substitute because they send out general assignment reporters who haven’t a clue what’s going on to cover stories that will get what, 45 seconds? What newspapers can, and should, do more of is in-depth reporting. They may not break the story, but they can have the final word if they choose to do so.
That said, I think your readers have been too unkind to my old friend Steve Kraske. His current base is the university and KCUR. Both institutions are all left, all the time and Kraske has adapted well to his new environs. Helling will be Tweedle Dee to Kraske’s Tweedle Dum.
You’ve also been unkind to Lewis. Derek can’t replace him. I’m betting the final position will go to a black person. The reason it’s taking so long is finding one who doesn’t frighten white liberals. Even then, how can you replace a man who uttered the equation “negative diversity yields negative productivity” while instantly operationalizing those concepts by being an excuse for the former and an example of the latter.
As for poor Derek, I don’t know why you would complain about him since, according to the message he left on my answering machine, he is the much feared conservative you guys were afraid of. How could you do any better? He’s nuts and, as a bonus, he’s blocked virtually every conservative I know of who ever tried to comment on The Star’s web site. If that’s not a win-win for you guys, I don’t know what is.
Have you been drinking, John? Some of that makes about as much sense as a Mary Sanchez column…However, I think you’re right on target (and it didn’t occur to me) about getting an African-American for the eighth spot.
And thank God you’ve surfaced; I was about to call the Edwardsville cops and have them knock on your door.
Bottom line, they lost two reporters, they’ve eliminated their embarrassing public editor spot, Derek appears to be doing what Lajean Keene used to do and the editorial page will continue to be a waste of scarce resources.
Interesting Factoid: Sanchez repeatedly misspelled the name of Missouri ‘s new governor in her column in today’s paper. Maybe they will spell it correctly in upcoming editorials.