Watching the continuing decline of The Kansas City Star is both depressing and frustrating.
As most of you know, I canceled my subscription to the print edition last month, and I have no regrets. Even in the last month, the paper has slipped noticeably. For one thing there seems to be less urgency to get breaking news in the paper — either the print or online edition. (Online subscribers can still see what print subscribers are getting by going to the “eEdition” online.)
The online “home page” — what you see when you go to http://www.kansascity.com — changed within the last few months to where the lead stories often revolve around sports and features instead of news.
Early today, for example, the lead story on the website was, “How Clark Hunt and the Champion Chiefs went from mess to model.” One day within the last week or so, the lead story was about the Chiefs’ Super Bowl rings.
As you might expect, as the website has gone softer, the overall emphasis on news stories both local and national has dropped off. Sometimes, it seems, there is little or no effort to keep up with the news.
Let me give you some examples…
- On Aug. 25, the Black ministers of Kansas City unveiled a proposal that would resolve, after two or three years of uncertainty and confusion, how to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The proposal, voiced at a park board meeting, was for Volker Boulevard, Swope Parkway and Blue Parkway — which run east and west — to be consolidated into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. This was a major development after the proposed-passed-and-finally-defeated effort to rename The Paseo after Dr. King…I reported the story the day it broke (please hold applause), but The Star, which had been covering this twisting, turning story all along, suddenly wasn’t interested. To this day, a news story has not appeared regarding the proposal. On Sept. 3, nine days after the story broke, The Star ran an editorial under the headline, “Could a new plan to rename KC street for Martin Luther King Jr. finally end this debate?”
- Last Friday, Dan Margolies of KCUR broke a story saying a federal magistrate judge had recommended that criminal charges be dismissed against three men indicted over the 2018, duck-boat sinking in Branson that killed 17 people. Huge story. Again, The Star, which had been covering the duck-boat story all-out from the beginning, just yawned. It wasn’t until yesterday — four days later — that Steve Vockrodt reported the story in The Star.
- On Aug. 31, The Star had a story about an appellate court ruling on the ballot language of Amendment 3, which is on the Nov. 3 ballot and would overturn the Clean Missouri amendment, approved by voters in 2018. Among other things, the story said the Missouri Attorney General’s Office “will likely move to have the case transferred to the state Supreme Court.” That did not happen, however, and the Springfield News-Leader reported Sunday (Sept. 6) that Missouri lawmakers had decided not to appeal…The Star has failed to report that the language the appellate court came up with is what voters will see on Election Day.
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Jason Hancock
The main reason for the spotty coverage of Amendment 3 developments is that the paper recently lost one of its best reporters — Jason Hancock. Hancock had anchored the paper’s coverage of state government since 2012 and was as reliable as an atomic clock. He announced on Twitter on Aug. 21 that he was leaving to be editor of “an as-of-yet unnamed nonprofit news site focused on Missouri politics and government.”
The Star has not indicated if Hancock will be replaced. It would seem imperative, but with McClatchy’s recent change of ownership, going from publicly traded to controlled by a New Jersey hedge fund, who can say what is going to happen?
What is clear is that the exodus of veteran reporters is going to continue. Some of the veterans who survived the years between McClatchy’s purchase of Knight Ridder in 2006 and now are nearing retirement, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see several more veterans depart in the coming months.
It’s rough — rough on the employees and particularly rough on the readers, who, it seems, will be getting a diet of more pablum and less meat as time goes by.
So sad. Someone told me that the Courier Journal only has 6 people working on site at the paper! It shows, too!
It is a really sad fate for the Star. For some unknown reason, The Star (and its various previous and present owners) have not been on the cutting edge to save the paper (paper or digital). It looks like in less than a year from the purchase by the hedge fund The Star will be eliminated. No one will be covering local and state news. We can get national news on their websites or apps. I miss reading stories about house fires, and other “if it bleeds it sells” events. Jim, we are dinosaurs, but the future seems very bleak for the citizens to be informed of various news rather than what the national news outlets hand pick to report on Missouri and the Kansas City area.
A lot of talent worked at the Star (including you and, of course, me! lol). I guess change started with eliminating The Kansas City Times. The situation has just gone on and on with further reductions (e.g., closing the suburban bureaus, where I worked when I was with The Star) without very smart minds to figure how to stay competitive and forward thinking.
It’s been based solely on the fact if profits are down, then the powers are looking at eliminating something that made The Star special, instead of being forward thinking. They priced many people out of subscriptions and have had high prices on their digital edition. It’s pathetic that The Star resorted to soliciting contributions to try to stay afloat.
This column broke my heart.
As a Brookside kid whose father worked for the AP when the bureau was on the third floor at 1729 Grand, and who wrote my first obituary as a nightside summer intern in 1962, and who worked at The Star three times in almost every editorial capacity, it’s just shattering to read this. The poor coverage is one thing but what realty kills me is the lack of caring.
I’m delighted to be a founding member of The Beacon. May it thrive.
I think it’s an overstatement to attribute the problem to a lack of caring, Tom…I think it’s a variety of things, including change of direction, lack of diligence and misuse of talent.
They’ve got several good, seasoned reporters who could be taken off the special assignments they’ve been on for years and redeployed to cover daily news. Among others, that group includes Laura Bauer, Judy Thomas, Eric Adler, Lisa Gutierrez, Mike Hendricks and Mara Rose Williams. Good, proven reporters, all. If management can’t get the news in the paper with the existing set-up, then shake it up and get back to basics. Then, at least, The Star might not embarrass itself by highlighting lighter-than-air stories like the one about the Chiefs’ Super Bowl rings.
Thanks for the detail, and thanks for keeping people up to date on the institution’s sad decline.
I’m sure the devoted reporters care, but I’ll stick by my sense that the management doesn’t. If they did they’d be following your prescription or something a lot like it. The stories that you describe The Star letting fizzle are matters of significant civic meaning. That’s unthinkable to editors in their right minds.
That list of excellent reporters is precisely why I hope The Star dies and something new is created. There is so much talent available here locally of people who could create a paper to be proud of and yet nothing will happen as long as The Star exists.
Today The Star published a story outside its paywall of the quickly discredited report that 267,000 people had gotten the Wuhan Sicken after attending the Sturgis rally at a cost of over $12.2 billion to the taxpayers. The story was laughable on any number of levels and yet this is what McClatchy sent down from on high to serve as its flagship public service for the day.
Quite frankly, this embarrassment to our community cannot die fast enough. Perhaps then some local investors will step into the vacuum and create a decent local product, perhaps on a not-for-profit basis.
I’m frustrated by the lack of follow up to murder and fatality stories, particularly the identification of victims. I hardly ever see that any more.
I still get the print edition for mainly one reason. I fully expect if the print edition goes away, my daily New York Times delivery will go away. I do not think there are enough NYT subscribers in my area I think to pay for some carrier to deliver without The Star.
And I will not even go into that two of the major news stories about the Trump administration from yesterday received little or no play in today’s print edition.
“Little,” is correct, but the story on 5A about Robert Woodward’s new book is pretty interesting in that it revolves around former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s reaction. I agree with her criticism of Woodward for not publicizing earlier the fact that Trump had knowingly misled the public about the seriousness of Covid-19.
I also liked Claire’s Twitter comments about Mitch McConnell: “Big ass coward. Enabler. Lies.”
To your point about the NYT, I get it, too, and I’m going to take my chances with continuation of delivery after The Star goes all digital. By then, the NYT might have more print subscriptions in our area than The Star. It might be pretty close already.
I wonder if the NYT ever explored the option of hiring several local reporters to produce the “Kansas City” section of the NYT? Heavy on local politics, business, sports etc. Maybe an 8-page daily section. Just a thought. Might also prove to be a farm system for the Times.
Hiring teams of local reporters in every big city would be extremely expensive and extremely difficult from a managerial standpoint, Tom. They have at least one correspondent assigned to every big city as it is, although those people end up being more regional reporters than local. John Eligon is nominally the Kansas City correspondent, but he hasn’t done a story relating to Kansas City since before the Covid-19 outbreak.
As you may or may not be aware of, Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger was the Kansas City correspondent for about two years about 10 years ago…Funny story about that: I once met him at 75th Street Brewery for a beer, and as I was arriving I saw him pull into one of the 15-minute, carry-out parking spots. And that’s where his car stayed for our hour-long meeting. My conclusion was he was either not very observant or just figured the privilege was his. (He seems to be doing a very good job as publisher, though.)
I admittedly know nothing about business side of newspapers, but it appears that puts me in company with McClatchy.
I didn’t see a story in the Star updating the Kylr Yust murder case, but I read about it in the Sept. 4 North Cass Herald. Special Master James Bickel, a retired judge, was appointed by Circuit Judge William Collins to review violations of confidential communications that occurred when jail vendor Turnkey, Inc. and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office recorded privileged conversations between Yust and his attorneys. Bickel’s findings acknowledge that violations of attorney-client privilege did occur, but did not damage Yust’s defense. I’ll wager that Bickel’s ruling was enough for Collins to move the case forward, but it will blow up on appeal. Shade falls not on Judge Collins, as he has constantly tried to get this trial back on track and keep the Sheriff’s Department’s ham fist from thumping down on Justice’s scales. He can’t be happy with Prosecutor Butler, either, for letting this get out of hand.
Thanks for the update, Steve…I haven’t gotten to a courthouse lately to be able to call up the actual filings and see what’s been going on. That’s a tricky question on the confidential communications. Undoubtedly, Yust’s attorneys will pursue that in an appeal, if Yust is convicted at trial. Even if the prosecutors scrupulously avoid using anything they learned from the privileged calls, an appeals court could rule that the tainted information colored the overall prosecution. Trouble ahead, trouble behind.
Do they have anyone in Jeff City? Chrystal Thomas left recently, too. A real sad state of affairs. At least Pete Grathoff is still covering what’s happening on Twitter. (That’s sarcasm.)
I sure miss Dad but then there is a certain part of me who is glad he is no longer around to witness the continued painful decline of this once great newspaper. The last day he worked for The Star, the day he reluctantly retired under some pressure from ownership/management after about 45 years on the job, was February 28, 1990, the last day there was a Kansas City Times. Dad was a “Times man” at heart, according to Mom. In any event, things sure have changed a lot in the past 30 years and definitely not for the better! My heart goes out to those who are still in the trenches down at The Star trying to make a difference in this world, because I know it is easy to become rather discouraged by the current state of affairs.