I don’t spend a lot of time reading The Kansas City Star these days — the website features far too many entertainment, restaurant and Chiefs’ related posts for my tastes — but I have a feeling some changes could be coming to the paper.
I heard recently that longtime president and editor Mike Fannin is on leave…again. He took a leave of absence shortly after he was arrested in Olathe in June on suspicion of DUI, and now, I understand, he’s taken another leave.
While I’m not 100 percent sure of that report, I got it from a very good source and got enough confirmation that I’m fairly confident in it.
Two people told me that Managing Editor Greg Farmer is running the show from The Star’s new, rented headquarters in the 2500 block of Grand Blvd.
I have no idea what this leave — if, in fact, Fannin is on one — is about, but it doesn’t bode well for the leader of any organization to take two leaves within several months.
I don’t wish Fannin, who is 56, any ill will, but he’s been a lightning rod for a long time. His biggest problems, in my opinion, are 1) that he has downgraded coverage of local and state government at the expense of focusing on winning prizes (particularly the Pulitzer Prize), and 2) his policy of minimal community engagement has continued to push the paper away from the readers.
Subscribers have always taken a proprietary interest in their local papers, but in these days of corporate journalism, with hedge funds owning a significant portion of local papers, the newspaper-community bond has eroded significantly, not just here but in many metro areas.
Editors have the power to limit that erosion, however, by their coverage decisions and by doing all they can to engage the public with the paper. That can be done in a number of ways, including…
- Inviting members of the public to meetings where editorial decisions are made
- Sponsoring public forums where candidates and topical issues (for example, should there be a downtown baseball stadium?) are discussed
- Soliciting guest commentaries on a regular basis
- Featuring letters to the editor prominently
- Loading the website with meaningful, informative stories instead of frothy items designed to get “clicks.”
**
Fannin has worked at the Star since 1997 — 25 years — and he’s been the editor since 2008. That’s a good long run. In May of this year, he achieved his longtime goal of The Star winning a Pulitzer Prize on his watch, when former editorial-page writer Melinda Henneberger won for her editorial campaign against former Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski. Almost certainly because of Henneberger’s many columns, Golubski was indicted last month on charges that he violated the civil rights of two women by raping, sexual assaulting and kidnapping them.
Having achieved that goal and having held the top job nearly 15 years at KC’s still-largest news operation, maybe Fannin is now looking ahead at his post-KC Star days.
…Greg Farmer, who’s also been at the paper since 1997 and has been managing editor (the No. 2 post) since 2016, would be an excellent choice to be the next editor. He’s about 50, making him about six years younger than Fannin; he was highly regardeded by almost all staff members when I was at the paper; he is reasonable; and he has a calm and even personality.
The first orders of business for whomever succeeds Fannin should be to reassert local and state government news as top priorities and to get more “news” on the website. (That might be difficult, with hedge-fund ownership’s demands for clicks, but it should at least be the goal of the local editor.)
I have no idea if there will be a change at the top, but if there is, and if Farmer moved up, I think The Star could start regaining some of the ground and some of the good will it has lost over the last 15 or so years.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
If Fannin has an alcohol problem, it’s entirely possible he’s entered a treatment program. If he does have the illness and if he’s successful in treating it, he could have plenty of good journalistic years ahead of him.
I wish him the best, but I think it’s time for him to move on — maybe back to Texas.
Agree on the local over Pulitzer priority. People have grown weary of these self-backslapping “awards” (witness the ratings on any of the televised stuff) and are looking for information about what’s going on in their neighborhood and city hall.
The Star offers virtually nothing in those categories. As a result, when they do provide quality journalism (this editorial as an example https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article244413622.html) it goes largely unnoticed even in a local where fellow liberals dominate the political process.
As I’ve pointed out before, the number of followers a news department has on Facebook is a solid indicator of that department’s influence and the lowest rated other local network news outlet buries The Star by almost double when last I looked.
Sober, or not, The Star needs new leadership and Fannin’s day has clearly past.
Granted it was years ago but, in my limited interaction with him, I found Greg Farmer to be quite arrogant, boorish and condescending. Thus, he would be a perfect fit for The Star’s new editor
As you know, Mike, newsroom politics used to be deadly sport at The Star. It was very difficult for top managers to be both effective and universally admired and liked. Thinking back on my own experience, I came up with six editors who qualified on both fronts. They were Steve Shirk, Mike Waller, David Zeeck, Caitlin Hendel, O.J. Nelson (until near the end, when he realized he was dispensible) and Chick Howland. There were others, but those are the ones that first come to mind.
Howland is the only one still at The Star. He’s the investigations editor…I had the misfortune of being editor in the former Johnson County bureau when he was deputy editor. I lasted about a year, and he took over. As everyone at The Star knew, I was much better qualified as a reporter than an editor. I got out pretty soon after my deficiencies were exposed!
I agree with Mike. Farmer’s personality renders it impossible for him to be popular. Farmer has been in a leadership role since he arrived at the star 25 years ago and at the top of the food chain for at least 10 years because his goon personality fits the star’s leadership model. If he wanted to, he could have pushed for more local coverage instead of continuing the hunt for the Holy Grail. He didn’t because his job is and will continue to be to maintain the status quo. “Don’t rock the boat,” don’t upset anyone, is The Star’s mantra. To cover local government like we used to, holding government leaders’ feet to the fire while they are doing the bad stuff, means rocking the boat in a big way.
To pick up the Monday paper and see zero coverage of the Chiefs-Bills game, which started at 3:25 pm, was pretty demoralizing. I know the paper is printed in Iowa, but that’s the kind of event papers typically change deadlines for.
What the hell are you doing “picking up the paper,” Jackman? (You must have been in town visiting old friends.)
At any rate, as you well know, the printed edition of The Star is a disaster and on the road to oblivion. The only thing keeping it alive is the relatively high number of “senior citizens” who “got to have the paper in my hands every morning” and are willing to pay outrageous subscription prices — and don’t have a stomach for telephone negotiations. A lot of those people say they “want to support local journalism.” I just nod; I don’t have the heart to tell them they’re suckers.
You just described my father-in-law. But he did negotiate a rate.
“…visiting friends and family.”
Farmer is Fannin-lite. When drinky-Mike or drinky-Chris Christian didn’t want to deal with the suburbans, they sent Farmer, who somehow was less human than Mike or Chris. They’re absolutely abhorrent at dealing with day-to-day journalists or journalism, and the sling-shot of Farmer to do the job is an absolute riot. He can’t … he won’t … show an ability to lead in a way that inspires.