Today, sadly, I’m obliged to report another landmark in the contraction of my former favorite newspaper (and longtime employer), The Kansas City Star.
For the first time in at least a century, The Star’s Sunday print circulation has dropped below 100,000.
According to quarterly statistics from the Alliance for Audited Media, a newspaper industry trade organization, the number of Sunday papers being sold through home-delivery, mail and single copies was down to 97,376 at the end of 2018.
For the previous quarter, ending Sept. 30, 2018, the comparable figure was 104,195. At the end of 2017 it was 118,203.
The Star was founded in 1880, and by 1915 its circulation was more than 200,000. At its peak, probably in the 1950s, The Star’s Sunday circulation probably was between 400,000 and 500,000. That’s a spectacular fall.
For those of us who care, the time is long past to wring our hands about this free-fall in newspaper circulation. Many major metropolitan dailies are in the same situation and struggling to hang on and find light at the end of the online-era tunnel.
But here’s the tragedy: In Kansas City, at least, The Star has probably lost 90 percent of its former impact. Through the potent combination of its news and editorial pages, The Star used to be able to set and guide public policy, establish community goals and chart the course of civic engagement. With one well-timed editorial, it could kill a popular elected official’s future, or it could have Kansas City Council members or Jackson County legislators hopping to the beat of its drums.
Very seldom can it do that now. Elected officials know full well that The Star is a shadow of its former self and that relatively few people are paying attention either to what’s on the front or editorial pages, or what’s on the paper’s lame and mostly insipid website.
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Let me give you a classic example…Today’s print and online editions are led by what should be a blockbuster, ground-shaking story by Jackson County Courthouse reporter Mike Hendricks.
The gist of the story is this: Either County Executive Frank White or members of his staff (it would appear with his knowledge), emasculated a damning report about shortcomings in the deeply troubled Jackson County jail.
Here are two key paragraphs from Hendricks’ story…
White gave no hint when he released the Shive-Hattery report at the first of this year that the 53-page document had been heavily edited, despite his outspoken support for government “transparency” during his three years as head of county government.
The Star learned of the extensive omissions — more than 60 pages of singled-spaced text and charts — after obtaining a copy of the original, 118-page draft independently. A reporter then shared the document with the past two chairpersons of the county legislature, which last spring appropriated up to $285,000 for the study that White said would finally lay the factual foundation for replacing the Jackson County Detention Center with a safer and more humane facility.
Even more outrageous than the facts was White’s refusal to accept responsibility for the whitewashing of the report when Hendricks reached him by phone Friday night.
He said some of staff members whom he didn’t identify decided it would be wise to restrict public access to the material. “That’s not my fault,” he told Hendricks. “That’s not my call.”
“Not my call.” That from the mouth of the most powerful person in Jackson County government.
It’s just a lie. It’s thumbing his nose at the public and at the County Legislature.
And how can he do that? How can he get away with it?
One reason and one reason only: The Star no longer carries the big stick it did as recently as the mid-2000s. With its circulation decline and the shocking erosion of its editorial staff (including at least eight top-level reporters and two widely admired photographers who took buyouts last month), White and other elected officials now have little to fear in the way of repercussions from The Star.
Like I said, fewer than 100,000 households will have gotten today’s print edition of The Star. And more than half of those are outside Jackson County, and the residents of those households won’t particularly care what Frank White is up to. Thousands of readers will also be going to The Star’s website for their news, but the first headline they will see is not about Frank White’s chicanery but about “dangerous cold coming.”
And even if The Star decides to embark on a series of editorials lambasting Frank White, they will have little effect. White realizes that relatively few people are reading, and heeding, what The Star has to say. He knows he can do just about whatever he wants to do and that he can throw up yard signs bearing his name and the image of a baseball and he would be hard to beat at the polls.
Here’s the main point, though: This is much more than a tragedy for The Star. People are moving on from The Star. But they’re also moving on without any major, institutional guideposts, which The Star was, to open their eyes to the outrages going on around them.
Largely because of the decline of the newspaper, area residents are much less informed and engaged than they once were…Look at the mayor’s race. The primary is a month away and I would bet most people couldn’t name three of the candidates. Many people are feeling their way along in what is, simultaneously, an informational void and overload.
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One of my first editors at The Star, a man by the name of Don T. Jones once told me, “Fitzpatrick, you eat your bylines for breakfast, don’t you?”
He was 100 percent right. I loved to report and write stories, and I couldn’t wait to get out to the sidewalk the next morning and get the paper and see where my story was placed and how it read in black and white.
Those days, like the days of The Star’s several-hundred-thousand-copy runs, are over. And I am worried where we are going in this less-informed, less-enlightened era.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Hendricks is the perfect example of why journalists are far more important than editorial writers. As a columnist, I wouldn’t have read Mike on a bet. But, Hendricks is a world-class journalist and his work is almost always thorough and informative. I’ll read this article because I know it’s good journalism, even though I have little interest in Jackson County.
As for the editorial page, the less said about Tony Berg’s attempt to wow us with a couple of terminally hip east coast carpetbaggers the better. That’s what this blog is for.
I know you can come up with a more insightful comment than that…That record’s broke(n).
Important piece Jim! Good to have you back and hope you’re feeling better!
Thanks, Jack. It’s good to be back in play…I’ll let you know what develops.
Frank White has the infamous ability to even cause Ewing Kauffman trouble. He is a corrupt politician! I wish The Star had the readership, in any form, to make a difference.
And isn’t it interesting that everyone thought the Royals must have screwed him over when they chose not to renew his TV contract. The terrible truth, as it now turns out, is that he probably demanded an outrageous amount of money so he could keep his extended family and hangers-on living the lifestyle they had been accustomed to, thanks to his largesse.
A great job by Mike Hendricks. I’m guessing that he got this story by having sources at the courthouse who discreetly gave him a copy of the original. Part of being a great journalist is gaining the trust of sources_ most notably insiders who want the truth to be public. It takes experience to gain the trust of a source. And a reporter has to be a constant presence on a beat, otherwise a source is probably not going to trust that reporter. With fewer experienced reporters at The Star, we will see less of this and that is a travesty.
Hey, Fitz, what Mike said. That’s what I was getting at.
Your comments on the circulation free-fall of the Star is interesting to me. Not sure why…but I am already anticipating some catastrophic event somewhere down the line that will produce the final headline…STAR DEAD. WAS 139.
Interesting, at least to me, is that I have recently considered starting a subscription to the Orlando paper. Last Sunday (8 days ago) I purchased a copy at a convenience store…the price was $4.00!!!! I must have missed a lot of the price increases. I would have guessed the price to be maybe $1.50. The price is not too bad when you divide by two…yes I still have the majority of the sections unread. Didn’t need to buy one this week.
I also find interesting that in the times of serious declines in newspaper circulation the 1000’s of hardback books for sale at retailers like Costco, Walmart, and, SAM’S. Someone is still buying and reading print. Now there is a literary bunch!
The apparent flourish in libraries also amazes me. I know there are computers in libraries, but the majority of emphasis is dramatically on books…just like 50 years ago. Someone is still renting and reading print.
What could the Star, and many, many other local newspapers do to tap into or regain print readership from the groups mentioned above. I would enjoy reading your comments as what you would do if YOU were in charge at the STAR.
The sanctimonious editorial board and management could not handle talented writers being more popular and well paid. So they flushed the talent and accelerated their demise. They are losing the digital transformation war because the writing reads the same on a screen as it does paper… and the content is not good. Many papers are succeeding in the digital era.
Not sure about your reasoning there, Phil…All decisions are being made in Sacramento.
Happy Birthday, Jim! Good column. I was wondering, what are the Star’s latest print circulation numbers for M-F and Saturday? Also, I understand that the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are seeing healthy growth in their digital subscription numbers, but how are they doing on print circulation?
Thanks, Julius…and here are your weekday numbers for Q4 2018.
Monday to Friday print, average circ., 64,718.
Saturday print, average circ., 59,953.
Same numbers for Q4 2017…
Monday to Friday print, average circ.,, 76,853.
Saturday print, average circ., 71,210.
Thanks, Jim!
I just paid my monthly cable bill. It is more than I pay for an entire year for a Star online subscription.
I have issues with many aspects of the Star, both in terms of news/editorial content and personnel. That said, it’s still well worth my $110/year. I wish several hundred thousand people in the KC metro would join me. (But that probably ain’t gonna happen.)
I think the redactions on the jail report came from the Sheriff’s Office for security reasons. If the Star were to file a suit wanting the un-redacted report, I will bet the courts side with the county. Speaking of the jail…
The voters dumped a hotbed of misery on top of the new Sheriff, whose department got out of the jail business decades ago. The jail is a full-time job, on top of the full-time job of Sheriff. I think Forte is trying his best to learn all the numerous and varied aspects of jail operations, but is taking flak from the Star for what they perceive as being too secret and too slow., If he were going to school for a degree in corrections, it would take two years.
A new jail is going to take more than a couple of months. Everybody take a breath and relax. Nothing happens overnight.
Tobacco smoke, pressroom oil and news print…the smell can’t be recreated.