I wish I could see beyond the hilly horizon and get a glimpse of where The Kansas City Star is headed.
I want to think we’re going to have a viable paper five years from now — even if it’s just online — but things are changing so fast it’s impossible to say.
Consolidation in the newspaper industry is moving rapidly. There are now just four major chains: Gannett, McClatchy, Tribune and MNG (Media News Group).
Joshua Benton of the Nieman Lab wrote last week that the number could soon be down to two. That’s because McClatchy, which owns The Star and 28 other daily papers, is in bankruptcy and could be auctioned off, and Tribune could be acquired by MNG.
In addition to consolidation, the COVID-19 epidemic is savaging newspapers as much as about any other industry. Advertising had already plunged over the last 14 years, and now it’s in an even sharper slide. Some newspapers will not survive.
I think The Star will survive in some form — this is too big a metro area to not have a major daily paper — but what that will look like I can’t predict.
McClatchy has banked for years on a “print-to-digital transformation,” but it looks in retrospect like it was all pie in the sky. The Star, for example, now has about 17,900 digital-only subscriptions (up from 12,300 at this time last year), but that’s a very small number considering the metro area’s population is about 2.1 million.
The Boston Globe, by comparison, has more than 100,000 digital-only subscribers.
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One thing I do know is that The Star’s print product continues to be plagued by poor editing and overall lack of attention, and I believe that’s a factor in the declining print-circulation figures.
The latest figures from the Alliance for Audited Media, an industry-funded organization, show that Sunday print circulation dropped 10 percent between March 31 last year and March 29 of this year, and Monday-to-Friday print circulation fell 6 percent over the same period.
The Sunday numbers:
:: March 31, 2019 — 86,398
:: March 29, 2020 — 77,468
The Monday-Friday numbers:
:: March 31, 2019 — 57,035
:: March 29, 2020 — 53,589
(Note: I incorrectly reported in February that Monday-Friday print circulation had fallen below 50,000 at the end of 2019, but I failed to include single-copy sales.)
Back to the editing problem…With very few display ads, the print edition, while very thin generally, has a huge “news hole.” More than a decade ago, the ratio of ads to news ran somewhere around 60-40, but now I would say it’s about 10-90.
(That’s why The Star and other papers have raised print prices so much in recent years; they’ve had to switch from largely advertising supported to mostly subscription supported.)
Many papers, including The Star, have also slashed their payrolls to the point that they have editorial staffs perhaps 20 to 25 percent of what they used to be — and those numbers might be too high.
At The Star, at least, the combination of a big news hole and a skeletal editorial staff has resulted in a lot of long, boring stories.
I’ve noticed in past weeks 50-, 60- or 70-column-inch stories that, in the past, would have been 30 to 35 inches. In addition to being too long, those stories seldom are accompanied by good photos and informative graphics, which offer the readers breaks from long legs of uninterrupted text and often add to a story’s appeal.
Column after column of text tends to discourage readers, unless a story is particularly important and compelling. Many readers turn away when they see that a story is going to take considerably more time to digest than they had bargained on.
…Until Sunday, I didn’t think the story-length problem could get any worse.
Until Sunday.
The lead story — one about COVID-19 nursing-home deaths — came in at 85 inches. It should have been about half that.
But the blockbuster, so to speak, was a story that appeared under the front-page headline “Overland Park businesses work to adapt to new reality.”
I read the first four paragraphs, which were on the front page, and then turned to the “jump,” where the story continued inside. To my astonishment, the story took up all of page 6A and all of page 7A, except for a 9-inch by 5-inch ad on each of those pages.
The column-inch count? 146. One hundred forty-six precious inches and two full pages of a 12-page section.
That kind of length is reserved for stories like a year-long investigation or a major scandal.
To quote my favorite lawyer — Seinfeld attorney Jackie Chiles — such story lengths are “outrageous, egregious, preposterous.”
In this case, Jackie might have added soporific.
I say: Will the last editor in the building please take a hedge trimmer to these ridiculously long stories before the remaining print subscribers fall into a Rip Van Winkle coma?
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Wow! During the 1990s and 2000s, when I was at The Star, you had to have a pretty damn good enterprise story if you wanted to get just 30 inches. In fact, half the work on a story involved cutting it. And any story that warranted a page-long jump or double-truck had to be compelling and unique. Localized stories about nursing homes and businesses coping with the Coronavirus are anything but that.
Story length is just another indicator of the continuing mismanagement of The Star. They’re simply trying to substitute quantity for quality and failing, as usual, in the process.
The problem is consolidation. Sadly, McClatchy is recommending that the hedge fund take over the papers in bulk, knowing full well what will happen if they do.
Instead, how about letting local bidders from each community bid on their local paper and giving them the priority in the bidding process?
It’s hard to argue that these huge corporations have provided any better and more objective news than those owned locally by a family. It would also be difficult to argue that a New York hedge fund manager would have more of an interest in serving a local community than a local family or consortium.
I think you should cut the folks putting out the paper some slack. Everything is more complicated because so many designers and editors have been shed, and if it’s like what is happening in St. Louis, almost everyone is working remotely, making communication clunkier. And this story is so intense and fast moving that everyone is working at 90 mph. I subbed in some night shifts for the Post-Dispatch at the beginning of the stay at home orders and it was crazy. And the processes all took longer because you couldn’t confer with your colleagues easily. I think news people are doing a hell of a job.
10-90? Looks like they’re trying to demonstrate that they’re bleeding money.
Long stories unless they also include a lot of splashy pictures are no doubt a turnoff to the 20- to 45-year-old crowd The Star is trying to convert into loyal readers and subscribers. Some of us still want to be informed, the rest, they just want to be entertained.
Well, there aren’t very many 20-45-year-olds taking the print edition, but I agree 100 percent that the vast majority of any young people who come across those long stories online are not sticking with them. You’re right in that they are a deterrent to growing digital circulation with that age group.
The idea of “newspaper” folks trying to reinvent an outdated product as it slides into bankruptcy is ludicrous. They need to hire actual internet professionals, schooled not in journalism but in internet marketing. Some editors are ignorant of how news is being consumed by those under 40. First, websites need to look good and be readable on a Smartphone. Second charge more for ads. The number of ads on the Star site would choke a horse. With pop-ups and annoying videos playing, the article you want to read is barely 25% of the screen. Contrast that experience with the Huffington Post, which has a clean, clear presentation of news and is easy to read on the phone. If consumers want more information, they have a computer in their hand and they can Google a treasure trove of information on any subject. Reporters don’t need to cover the minutia in depth.
I edited your comment for clarity and length, Karl, and I trust it still represents your thoughts…
I agree with you about the importance of having a website that is conducive to being read on one’s mobile phone. I disagree with your last sentence, though, about covering stories in depth.
Multi-dimensional stories always need to be reported in depth. My complaint is that The Star’s reporters and editors often fail to distill the fruits of the reporting. What is unacceptable is “emptying the notebook” on every story, regardless of import. That’s what has been going on in far too many cases at The Star. The reporters and editors have to start reining themselves in and asking themselves, “How much is this story really worth?” and “How long will the average reader stay with it?”
Also, as you say, the reporters and editors need to keep in mind that many people are reading on their phones and will flip right past overly long, run-of-the-mill stories.
I realize things are stretched at The Star, but perhaps whoever there is handling the Letters to the Editor should spend at least a few minutes doing a search on the letter writer’s names and backgrounds before printing their letters.
Over a week ago there was letter from a jewelry store owner complaining about the shut down. It was under the owner’s name. I know he owns a jewelry store, but how many other people know he does. This is information that should be added in italics below the letter writer’s name.
This morning there is a letter from a woman who said she would surely give up her life for her kids and grandkids (ala Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas) and she said she is sure others feel this way. A 30 second search found that this woman and her husband own a mortuary. This is relative information and it should have been appended to her letter below her name.
It’s almost impossible to police the letters to the editor, Bill, trying to figure out who’s got a vested interest and what their connections might be to the subject they’re writing about. Besides, the letters block is the forum where people can pimp, promote and proselytize.
(Looks like Clarice and Walter Dengel are the former owners of Dengel & Son Mortuary in Ottawa. They passed it on to their son Craig. Also, I think Mrs. Dengel’s point of view is rooted more in a conservative philosophy rather than offering herself as a sacrificial lamb.)
It’s not anything close to impossible to “police” letters to the editor, Big Jim…
Think about it…
Not that long ago, editors contacted the writer to confirm their identity, etc. before publishing.
Methinks they just are too spread thin to do this now and have too many other fish to fry.
The Star could better use the space by publishing more AP wire stories about activities in the Missouri and Kansas legislatures. National and international stories are being used as “filler material” too frequently.
The paper once had well-staffed bureaus in both Jefferson City and Topeka, but now has no full-time staffing in either city. What is occurring at the state level is more important than ever now with increasing budget shortfalls and the COVID-19 information. Those issues are intertwined and complicated. Also, never-ending education issues at the state level in Missouri and Kansas need coverage.
Television and radio both have such tight time constraints that they are not able to give adequate time/space to legislative stories. This is still one niche that using the Associated Press material could make the newspaper more relevant on a daily basis.
Excellent observation, Joe. I wouldn’t even mind more national wire stories. The NYT is a treasure trove of relevant material, and you just can’t go wrong with them. You’re right, though, that Missouri and Kansas news is probably what area residents would appreciate most.
One correction: Jason Hancock has been full time in Jefferson City for many years. He’s one of The Star’s top reporters, and very seldom does he over-write. He reports in depth and distills well, keeping the readers in mind.
Do you really think Mr. Vaughn wants the world to see his email address or am I being paranoid?
My ace editor to the rescue again. I thought there was something funny about that i.d. line.
Another editorial page failure in The Star this morning. I am sure to give “both sides”, they published a column by John Kass of the Chicago Tribune published Thursday blasting the “elite” like the media.
After being chastised that the Tribune is furloughing a number of reporters while Kass works at home collecting his six figure paycheck, he walked it all back on Friday.
From Robert Feder media columnist of the Daily Herald in the Chicago area:
“Kass acknowledged that his phrasing of “media elites” had angered colleagues.
“I am truly sorry I was not clear,” he told me in an email. “I was referring to myself as a columnist who has the luxury of working from home, and to the TV talking heads, politicians and bureaucrats. I was not referring to reporters, many of whom have been laid off as coronavirus negatively impacts local advertising.
“Our reporters are working hard, many for low pay. I should have made that more clear.””