JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Today, I have a special treat for you. It’s the transcript of an amazing speech that Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, known as “Punch,” gave in Kansas City on May 25, 1994.

In the speech, Sulzberger essentially dismissed the “information superhighway” that was careening full speed at print journalism’s front end. He comes off, alternately, as naive, confused, insightful, smug and wary. As an example of his naivete, he refers twice to America Online (now AOL Inc.)as American Online.     

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

At the time of the speech, Sulzberger was chairman of The New York Times Company. Two years earlier, he had stepped down as publisher of the newspaper that bears the company name, passing the publisher’s mantle to his son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., who remains publisher of the paper and also is chairman of the company. 

The elder Sulzberger, now 84 and retired, was the guest speaker at Midwest Research Institute’s 50th annual dinner, held at the Westin Crown Center hotel. 

I got a copy of the speech from an old friend and former Kansas City Star colleague, Julius Karash, who covered the speech for the business desk and wrote an article for the next day’s paper. Julius had the presence of mind to save the speech, and the subject came up when we had lunch last week. I got it in the mail today. (Thank you so much, Julius.)

Here’s the speech, as taken from the transcript.   

“Thanks you for that generous introduction.

“A number of years ago, in a speech at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I noted that a disproportionate number of this country’s fine newspapers were family owned. My conclusion was simple. Nepotism works.

“This evening I should like to try out another old-fashioned view. It is my contention that newspapers are here to stay. They are not going the way of the dinosaur – rendered extinct, in this case, by the wonders of a new technology that will speed us down an interactive information superhighway of communications.

“I’ll go one further. I believe that for a long time to come this information superhighway, far from resembling a modern interstate, will more likely approach a roadway in India: chaotic, crowded and swarming with cows. Or, as one might say, udder confusion.

“While this information highway remains ill-defined, there are, nevertheless, many players wanting to become involved. Such companies include regional and long-distance carriers, cable companies and newspaper organizations, to name a few. But the risks can be high and some big players such as Cox Enterprises, Bell Atlantic and Southwestern Bell recently announced grand schemes only to later call them off.

“There are few, if any, clear road signs, and many would-be players share in the dilemma of not knowing which way to move, while, at the same time, fearing to be left behind. The costs of entry can be heavy and many organizations still remember being badly burned by betting on the wrong technology.

“James Batten, chairman and CEO of Knight-Ridder, owners of the ill-fated Viewtron Information System, recently was quoted in Business Week as saying Knight-Ridder still remembered and wasn’t ready at this time to take any mega-multimedia gambles. “If we were enthusiastic about one of these technologies,” he noted, “we would not be afraid of stepping up to the plate.”

“It’s a dilemma. Some years and many dollars ago, my company struck a deal with Mead Data Central to take over The New York Times Information Bank, our money-losing retrieval system. Mead had by that time developed a retrieval ability with its Lexis System used by law firms. For years our relationship was a sound one, rapidly turning us a profit after many years of loss. Suddenly, to our surprise, the electronic part of Mead is put up for sale, confusing the scenario.

“Like young bucks we had felt a springtime urge to participate in the new information-based explosion. Like others, we were fearful of seeing competitors speeding down the information superhighway as we were left stranded on a service road. But, like Knight-Ridder, we see no clear path at this time which calls for a major commitment to a single technology.

“We have, therefore, hedged our bets. We cut a deal with an old protagonist – Dow Jones, publishers of the Wall Street Journal – to distribute via p.c. The New York Times News Service with theirs. At the same time, we are working on a service with American (stet) Online to make available our cultural and entertainment report. CBS and The Times are working together on an interactive CD-ROM of the Vietnamese War. Our sister paper, the Boston Globe, is having discussion with American (stet) Online. And Prodigy is talking with our Magazine Group.

“But as we search and hope that some of these technologies, alone or combined, will click, we realize that we are a long way from saying goodbye to our newsprint suppliers.

“To the contrary. We have renewed our faith in the written word by acquiring for more than a billion dollars in stock one of the country’s great newspapers – The Boston Globe.

“But let me at the same time assure those among you who…may be shareholders. We are not complacent in our belief. We recognize that a newspaper to survive must meet the needs of readers and advertisers. In a world filled with information and almost unlimited reader and advertiser options, one can no longer rely on customer understanding and goodwill (to allow) for poor quality or early deadlines and incomplete stories. Nor will the advertiser long sit still if his ad does not pretty quickly jingle the cash register.

“Frankly, neither the reader nor the advertiser is particularly interested in our problems. Nor should they be. They just want results – the kind of results that basically flow from good journalism rather than technology. Alas, one thing is clear: new technology alone won’t improve a lousy newspaper. Only an editor can do that.

“Nor do I see news on demand substituting for a daily newspaper. Reader Jones might well have a deep interest in ice hockey, grain futures and foreign policy issues affecting China. A computer can easily assemble such information from many sources. But this compilation is a far cry from a newspaper.

“When you buy a newspaper, you aren’t buying news – you’re buying judgment. Already in this low tech world of instant communications there is too much news. That’s the problem. Raw news will do just fine if you’re a computer buff and want to play editor. But I, for one, would rather let a professional take the first raw cut at history and spend my leisure time fishing.

“And while you’re thinking about newspapers, don’t forget serendipity. How many times has one opened a newspaper to discover some fascinating tidbit you never would have had the wit to search for in a computer?

“Judgment, serendipity and something left over to wrap the fish, all neatly folded, in living color, and thrown at no extra cost into the bushes. All for just a few cents a day. It’s called a newspaper. And when you add a wee bit of ink for your hands and top it with a snappy editorial to exercise your blood pressure, who needs that elusive interactive information superhighway of communications.

“Just point me to the fishing hole! Thank you.”

At 130 years old, The Kansas City Star is a “mature” company. In recent weeks, however, it is showing signs that it is developing a broader, more mature view of its journalistic mission than it exhibited in the immediate wake of the newspaper implosion a few years ago. 

It has been encouraging to me — and I trust to other serious readers — that The Star has been giving readers a broader array of front-page stories, aimed at informing readers not only about developments in the Kansas City area but also the nation and the world.

Several years ago, top managers at The Star, following the lead of many other metropolitan dailies, got it into their heads that revitalization hinged on local coverage and appealing to younger readers. Before I retired in 2006, the newsroom rule was that there had to be at least three locally written stories on A-1 every day. That artificial quota only served to push a lot stories out front that were not worthy of Page 1.

In addition, it didn’t stem the downward spiral of circulation and advertising. Now, I think, Star editors have come to the realization that they can’t lure the younger set with puff pieces that don’t appeal to core readers, those 50 and over. For now, at least, the vast majority of young people have given up newspapers in favor of the Internet and social media.

As the paper lost money, laid off employees and literally shrank in size, circulation continued to drop. The most frequent complaint I have heard about the paper is, “There’s nothing in it.” I believe, however, that people can and will adjust to the lower page count and smaller news “hole,” provided that The Star will give the readers substantive and interesting content from front to back. 

Lately, it seems to me, the paper is returning to its roots and emphasizing solid content. It may still go down in flames, but if it does, it won’t be because of gimmicky, goofy front-page stories.

Here are just three recent examples of prominent front-page stories that served Star readers well:

Wednesday, April 7 — At the top left part of the page was a large, riveting photograph of police officers in Kyrgyzstan trying to ward off an attack from people protesting the country’s repressive rule. Even if you have trouble pronouncing the name of the former Communist bloc country, the story is important to Americans because the upheaval could pose a threat to the American military supply line into nearby Afghanistan.   

Thursday, April 15 — The “lead” story (upper-right part of the page) was about the drug-related murder spree in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across from El Paso. While the problems there don’t pose a direct threat to us in Kansas City, the specter of uncontrolled violence in a border city of 1.3 million people is cause for great alarm anywhere in North America. Moreover, if the bad guys win in Ciudad Juarez, more drugs will be coming into the U.S. 

Friday, April 16 — The lead story, under an eery, horizontal photo, was the ash cloud that grounded thousands of flights in northern Europe and left tens of thousands stranded in airports. Why is that important here? Try these: The volcanic eruption in Iceland was unique and visually captivating; thousands of Americans are in northern Europe every day; and at any particular time lots of Kansas Citians are likely to have relatives or acquaintances traveling in Europe. Again, it’s not just the situation itself but the linkage that contributes to the story’s appeal throughout the U.S.  

I have always believed that the mission of a major metropolitan daily is to give readers cogent, interesting reports of the most important news — and news analysis — at the local, state, national and world levels. You shouldn’t have to take The New York Times to get a solid picture of what’s going on at the upper tiers.

I started taking The Times more than a year ago because I wasn’t getting all the news that I needed and wanted from The Star. And even with what I see as The Star’s broadening scope, I won’t stop taking The Times. I have the time to read it, and now, having become accustomed to getting a truckload of information and analysis about national and international events, I’m not about to retrench.

But I think it’s fair to say that The Star has been shedding its hyper-local blinders and is making a bigger effort to give its readers, if not All the News That’s Fit to Print, at least A Better Front Page.

                                                               *****

Etc. — One piece of news, two different interpretations

On Friday, Gannett Co., the nation’s largest newspaper publishing company as measured by total daily circulation, reported its first-quarter earnings. A story on the website of Editor & Publisher, the newspaper industry’s leading trade publication, bore this headline: “More evidence of newspaper turnaround: Gannett doubles Q1 profit as revenue decline moderates.”

The E&P story began by saying that Gannett reported a first-quarter profit that was double its first-quarter earnings in 2009. More than halfway into the story, the readers got this piece of information: “Overall operating revenue was off 4.1 percent.”

Morningstar, an investment-research company that analyzes stocks and mutual funds, put a different spin on the same set of numbers. Its one-paragraph summary to subscribers began with this: “Gannett’s first-quarter sales fell 4 percent from the prior-year period, supporting our thesis that the newspaper industry is in perpetual decline.”

Would the following be a fair interpretation of the difference in the reports? Where E&P was looking at the trees, Morningstar was looking at the forest.

Before launching into Round 3 of Plums & Prunes, I want to tell you about an e-mail exchange with Mike Fannin, editor of The Star.  

Fannin

In a message last week, I told Mike, a fellow Kentucky native, about my blog, saying it was mostly about journalism and inviting him to check it out. He wrote back: “Jim: I appreciate the invite. No offense intended but I generally don’t have time to waste on things like this. Good luck and stay in touch.
Regards, Mike.” 

Well, now, you probably wonder, did that make me mad? Nahhh. After 38 years in journalism (37 as a reporter and assigning editor at The Star), it takes more than a brush-off from an editor to raise my hackles. But it does make me wonder why the top editorial person at the paper would be so dismissive of a constructive critique of his product. If I were in Mike’s shoes, I think I would want to know what others thought about my product, especially at a time when the public increasingly has been turning its back on the paper.      

Onward and upward, then! 

Plums 

~”That’s two lives with one liver’ ” (A-1, Friday, April 9) — Fascinating story about how a man named Richard Gross, whose liver was creating a particular health problem for him, donated his liver to another fellow, who should be able to get decades of use from it. Meanwhile, the donor also got a new liver, and his prospects look bright. Story by Donald Bradley.  

~ “A new tone amid further disclosures” (A-1, Saturday, April 10) — It took a month, but The Star finally got the reignited priest sexual-abuse scandal on the front page. The packaging was outstanding, with the latest developments being “teased” (guiding to inside stories) under a photo of a somber-looking Pope Benedict XVI. The reader’s eyes then track down to a top-notch, bottom-of-the-page story about Kansas City-based National Catholic Reporter, a weekly that has doggedly been reporting on the scandal for 25 years. Story by Laura Bauer of the metropolitan staff and Eric Adler of the features department. 

~”Public payrolls weathering recession” (A-1, Sunday, April 11) — Only the newspaper can and will do this kind of story. The Star analyzed a database of more than 160,000 area public employees’ pay in 2009 and came out with a cogent report that  must have left many readers seething. Among other things, Michael Mansur reported that more employees are making $100,000 a year and more also have moved into the $50,000 to $100,000 range.  Let the good times roll.  

~ “$506 million in budget cuts” (B-1, Sunday, April 11) — Extremely clear and well-written budget-cut story by Jason Noble of the Jefferson City bureau. After noting that Gov. Jay Nixon and the Senate Appropriations chairman were pleased that the cuts would keep expenditures in line with revenue, Noble wrote, “But, oh, at what a cost,” and proceeded to detail the painful cuts. 

~ “County gets tough on keeping people in jail” (B-3, Sunday, April 11) — Police reporter Christine Vendel kept up the good work on revoked drivers, reporting that prosecutors are following up on their pledge to crack down in the wake of sixth-grader Damien Slayton’s death at the hands Clayton (Revoked and Dangerous) Dunlap.        

~ “Joyful winner is good for golf” (A-1, Monday, April 12) — Edgy column, painting Tiger Woods as villain, by Jason Whitlock on Phil Mickelson’s victory at The Masters golf tournament.  

~ “A lifeline is languishing” (A-1, Monday, April 12) — Another strong entry in the paper’s occasional series examining budget reductions in Kansas and Missouri. This one, by Lee Hill Kavanaugh, is about cuts to the Missouri Kidney Program.  

~ “Police seeking Plaza solution” (A-1, Tuesday, April 13) — After dragging its feet for a day, The Star got aggressive on the Plaza melee story. (For more on this, see post from Wednesday, April 14.) 

~ “Ignoring danger signs” (A-1, Wednesday, April 14) — A gut punch of a story about the increased risk of irreparable heart damage that patients without health insurance run. Written by Alan Bavley. Accompanied by a bold and beautifully framed photo by David Eulitt. 

~ “Speculation still stirs over horses’ deaths” (A-1, Wednesday, April 14) — In a piece that made me want to kick something, reporter Grace Hobson probed the death of 18 horses, some of them former Thoroughbred race horses, who died while in the possession of the daughter of former Woodlands’ trainer Jim McCoy. McCoy died last August. Neighbors and others contend the horses died because they did not get enough to eat. 

~ “A hunt to behold” (B-1, Wednesday, April 14) — Outdoor writer Brent Frazee weighed in with a touching and inspiring story about a blind 14-year-old, Charlie Wilks, who was able to shoot a 24-pound turkey.    

~ “In twilight of his career, Sen. Bond keeps active” ((A-1, Thursday, April 15) — Washington correspondent David Goldstein beckoned the reader into this story with an inviting first sentence, “The calendar says spring, but for Sen. Kit Bond, it’s autumn.” 

 ~ “A new era begins for Kansas City School Board” (A-1, Thursday, April 15) — Centerpiece photo of the new king of the educational hill in K.C., Airick Leonard West. Photo by Eulitt.  

Prunes  

#% “Seizing the moment” (B-5, Friday, April 9) — Mike DeArmond story about the introduction of Robin Pingeton as the new women’s basketball coach at the University of Missouri seemed innocuous…unless, that is, you also happened to read the Associate Press account. The AP story said that Pingeton went out of her way, at the news conference, to emphasize her Christianity and family values. That raises the specter of putting her at odds with people who don’t drape themselves in those values, including gay women supporters of the team. It was a significant omission by DeArmond. (For more on this, see the post from Monday, April 12.) 

#% “Some smell the coffee, crusade for Folgers plant” (A-1, Saturday, April 10) — There’s nothing wrong with the thrust of this; it’s a legitimate front-page story about an attempt to keep the Folgers plant from closing. My gripe is that in two front-page stories about the announced closing, business writer Randolph Heaster has yet to quote a single plant worker. (I chatted with a worker for 10 minutes while shooting photos outside the plant Tuesday. He’s 60 and going to retire.) It’s long past time for Heaster to get the phone out of his ear and put his shoes on the pavement. 

P.S 

* “Meche has a bad day in first start” (B-2, Monday, April 12) — It’s a good column by Sam Mellinger, but he didn’t get any help from the copy desk (the quality control center) when he wrote, “That jives with what Meche calls…” Should be “jibes.” Jive” has several meanings, but none has anything to do with being in accord.

Hangers Cleaners, widely recognized around town by its catchy name and eye-catching delivery vans, got a big boost in today’s issue of  The New York Times.

A times staffer, Pamela Ryckman, wrote a small business “case study” about Hangers, which Joe Runyan, a former Sprint marketing employee, opened in 2004. The story, with accompanying photo, occupies the top of page 4 in The Times’ business section. The Star did a small business profile of Hangers in 2006.

Hangers, with headquarters at 139th and Wyandotte, promotes itself as an environmentally safe dry cleaner. “It uses,” The Times said, “colorless, odorless liquid carbon dioxide instead of the aggressive chemicals applied at traditional dry cleaners.”

One aspect of the story is a challenge to Hangers by corporate giant Procter & Gamble, which opened an eco-friendly dry cleaner not far from Hangers’ headquarters two years ago. P & G now has three locations in this area and is advertising franchise opportunities in Ohio and Kentucky.

In addition to its van service, Hangers has two stand-alone stores — one at the south Kansas City headquarters and one in Lee’s Summit — and outlets at nine Hy-Vee stores, all but one on the Kansas side.

The Times’ story says Hangers has 35 employees and 2009 revenue of $1.6 million.

The talk of the town this week, of course, is the mayhem that occurred on the Plaza Saturday night, when several hundred young people rampaged from one part of Kansas City’s “crown jewel” to the next.  

Fortunately, only one person was seriously injured — a teenage boy who apparently was thumped on the head with a pipe in the Winstead’s parking lot. A Grandview couple, in their 20s, was robbed, and a group of about 15 young men kicked and punched the man until the woman threw herself on him to protect him. 

OK, Kansas City, we’ve got a problem, that much is clear. 

So, how has The Star — the best equipped, most authoritative news-gathering organization — covered this so far? My grade on the coverage, through today, is a “B.” The paper started out slowly, but it caught up Tuesday and today, in a big way, with excellent front-page stories. Perhaps criticism from some local bloggers (this is the first time I’ve weighed in) may have contributed to the upswing in coverage, but, whatever the reason, the paper picked up the tempo. 

Reasons for caution  

Before we look at the specifics of the coverage, here’s some context. 

First, consider the stakes. As a friend of mine said in an e-mail, the economic health of the Plaza is on the line:  “As beautiful and historic as the Plaza is, when the money stops flowing in from shoppers and other money spenders, it’s over. If you spook the cupcake eaters from the carriage trade, and put fear into the mix, you can turn off the lights.” 

In fact, the carriage ride shut down early last Saturday night. 

The Star folks are well aware of the stakes, of course, and, consequently, they know it’s a huge story. For The Star, however, this story is in some ways a nightmare. That’s because it turns on two elements that have long flummoxed the paper — the sensitive matter of race and the marketing muscle of the Plaza.  

The young people who have been running amok on the Plaza are black.  Until today, you wouldn’t know what race the kids were from reading The Star, and, to some extent, the race of the troublemakers isn’t important. Nevertheless, it’s an underlying issue that The Star has to deal with. 

Threatened boycott 

The Star has squirmed in the face of racially based stories carrying negative implications for more than 20 years. The seminal event in paper’s cautious approach to racial matters occurred more than 20 years ago when a group of black ministers — a powerful lobbying group on behalf of African-American interests in Kansas City — protested coverage of one thing or another by coming onto Star property with signs calling for a boycott of the paper.  The ministers paraded around the fountain, on Star property, just outside the front doors at 18th and Grand. The Star could have called police and had the ministers removed to the sidewalk. But, as I recall, The Star, not wanting to inflame the situation, let the demonstration wind down to a natural, peaceful conclusion. I believe that the editor at the time, the late Joe McGuff, invited at least some of the ministers inside to talk things over. Ever since then, The Star has tread ever so lightly when it comes to stories turning on racial matters. 

Regarding the Plaza — Kansas City’s sine qua non of tourist attractions –the owners, Highwoods Properties now and the J.C. Nichols Co. before that, have long fought to minimize bad publicity. I remember that years ago, when we would write about crimes occurring “near the Plaza,” Plaza officials would hammer at the door, demanding that we run the address or intersection and leave the Plaza’s name out of it. 

The editors would not acknowledge it, but the Plaza is one several “sacred cows” — institutions that the paper handles delicately. The Nelson Art Gallery is another example. While the Nelson and the Plaza don’t get a pass on negative coverage, the editors certainly proceed carefully on stories that smack of negativity. 

Weekend coverage   

That brings us to late Saturday night. The Star sent Tony Rizzo, a very capable police and courts reporter, to the scene. Working on a very tight deadline, Rizzo filed an adequate story — covering the main points, including the boy’s serious head injury — which the editors put on page B-2 Sunday morning.  My only beef with the story is its placement: It should have been on the section front. But that, in my opinion, is where considerations of race and the iconic nature of the Plaza prompted editors to err on the side of caution. It’s a fact of life in the newspaper business that it’s easier to defend down-page or off-front placement of controversial stories than it is to defend against charges of inflammatory or unfair journalism.  

Strangely, The Star carried no follow-up story on Monday, at least that I could find. In my opinion, the paper should have run a short story, at the very least, elaborating on the incident outside Winstead’s. Why didn’t The Star do anything for Monday’s paper? I put that question — and several others — to Managing Editor Steve Shirk in an e-mail Monday afternoon, but I didn’t hear back. So, I’m left to speculate. Again, I think caution — let the matter settle down a bit — was a factor. Also, to mount a major Monday follow-up would have meant calling in several reporters and editors on Sunday, and, frankly, The Star doesn’t do that very often. 

I didn’t look at The Star’s Web site on Sunday, but I understand a follow-up story was there. The paper did have a substantive Web follow-up Monday, and that story, also by Vendel, was the foundation for Tuesday’s big throw on A-1. 

Rising to the occasion  

Tuesday evening on the Plaza

I’ve got to tell you I breathed a sigh of relief when I opened Tuesday’s paper and saw that Tuesday’s story led the front page — one and a half columns wide, upper-right placement. To its credit, The Star had kicked into high gear. Including a sidebar (a short story about teens communicating through social media), the story consumed more than 50 column inches. The account was chock full of details, such as the fact that youths “maliciously pushed a high school student wearing her prom dress into a restaurant patio fountain.” Among other things, it talked about the Police Department’s plans to counteract the problem, including using horse-mounted officers, and it informed readers about a change in admission policy at Cinemark The Palace theaters that probably is contributing to the problem.   

Today’s story addresses the racial dimension head-on and reports that city, police, the NAACP and representatives of various community groups will be meeting Monday to try to provide more constructive activities for kids.   

All in all, I believe the paper has risen above the twin towers of race and sacred cow, and readers now are getting all the information they need and deserve on this very important and super-sensitive story.

What a difference a couple of sentences can make.

Two reporters attend the same news conference; they report some of the same basic information, but one reporter includes a couple of pieces of information that the other reporter to chooses to omit. The result? One story leaves sharp-eyed readers with questions and concerns; the other has readers moving on to the next story with no second thoughts.

Such was the case with two accounts of the introduction of Robin Pingeton (pronounced PINCH-ton) last week as the new women’s basketball coach at the University of Missouri.

One account was by Mike DeArmond, long-time University of Missouri athletics reporter for The Kansas City Star; the other was by an Associated Press reporter, who didn’t get a “by-line” on the story, at least not in the ESPN.com version.

Both reporters included in their stories Pingeton’s age, new salary and her record at Illinois State University, where she had been coach. Both also quoted Pingeton as calling the Missouri job “a gold mine” of an opportunity.

Two-thirds of the way through the AP story, however, the reporter noted that Pingeton referred to herself at the news conference as “a Christian who happens to be a coach.” The reporter went on to say that Pingeton was accompanied by her husband and 3-year-old son, and then the reporter shared this piece of information: “She emphasized the theme of family throughout her remarks, noting that the three assistants who will follow from Illinois State are each married with children.” 

For whatever reason, DeArmond chose not to address the “Christian” and “family” issues. His story did not even mention Pingeton’s marital status.

To the casual reader, Pingeton’s reference to Christianity and her emphasis on family might not mean much. But in the world of women’s basketball, those points undoubtedly raised eyebrows. That’s largely because there is a significant gay dimension in women’s basketball. A multitude of gay women are fans; a lot of women coaches and their assistants are lesbians; and some players undoubtedly are gay. 

Without the gay dimension, women’s basketball would not be anywhere near as popular as it is. (An indicator of the popularity of the women’s game: More than 20,000 fans attended the women’s NCAA championship game, between Connecticut and Stanford, last Tuesday in San Antonio.)

As everyone in our sharply divided society realizes, the linkage of “Christian” and “family” values has political overtones that exacerbate the divisions, particularly for people who, while they might be Christian and have families, do not choose to envelop themselves in those values. That’s certainly the case with most gay people — men and women. When they hear the terms Christian and family values mentioned in close proximity, they head in the other direction.  

So, when Pingeton goes out of her way to talk about Christianity and family values, it raises all kinds of flags. And questions…like:

Does this mean that she wants everyone associated with the team, including players, to be practicing Christians? Does it mean she’s going to have prayer meetings and expect her players and coaches to attend services? (You can ask Kansas State Coach Deb Patterson about the wisdom of trying to cram Christianity down the throats of her players. She did just that several years ago and ended up alienating several players, including Kendra Wecker, the best player in team history.)

Does this mean that Pingeton disapproves of gay coaches and players? Does it mean that everyone who prospectively would be associated with the team must take an oath of heterosexuality before being admitted to the “Pingeton team”?

In short, does this mean that Pingeton intends to impose her religious and lifestyle preferences on the University of Missouri women’s program?  

Some of these questions might seem to be far-fetched, but I think that they are reasonable, given that Pingeton is the one who strayed from “basketball speak” the other day and made some strong points about her personal beliefs. Obviously, these things are important to her. But most coaches (and most people, for that matter) are smart enough to keep their personal beliefs out of their work environment. I’ve never heard of another women’s coach making comments along the lines of what Pingeton said, and, to me, it’s a sign of potential trouble. But back to those two accounts of the press conference. If you’d just read The Star’s account, you’d be likely to come away thinking, “OK, so the Robin Pingeton era is underway at MU. Looks good. Looks promising.”

But if you’d read the AP account — or both accounts — you might be wondering if Pingeton intends to steer a narrow course at MU and if, in so doing, she might end up alienating a significant part of the existing and potential fan base. That’s the last thing Missouri can afford: As it is, Missouri averaged fewer than 2,000 fans in 15,000-seat Mizzou Arena. 

As a former reporter and editor and as a keen newspaper reader, my main point is this: How events are covered — what information reporters choose to include in their coverage — is very important. I doubt if it was by accident that the AP reporter included Pingeton’s remarks about Christianity and family values. DeArmond should have reported them, too.

Your local journalism policeman is On The Job, readers! Here’s Round 2 of the (already) wildly popular feature that had its inaugural run last week —Plums & Prunes, a periodic critique of recent editions of The Kansas City Star.   

Plums   

~ “Families aghast at cremation scandal” (A-1, Friday, April 2) — Joe Lambe and Dawn Bormann scored a “holy crap!” story with their piece about a New Mexico man who allegedly sent body parts to a medical waste facility in KCK. The New Mexico man is charged with three felony fraud counts. As a friend of mine, a former Star reporter, put it: “It’s a story that has legs….and arms and…”   

~ April 2 centerpiece photo (above) of Jeanne Tiller, the widow of slain abortion doctor George Tiller, being hugged by a female family member at the sentencing of killer Scott Roeder. Both women’s eyes are closed, and the two are melded as one by hands, arms and gently touching heads. Photo by Jeff Tuttle of The Wichita Eagle.    

~ “Hey! That really gets my goat” (A-4, Friday, April 2) — That was the  “overline” above a priceless photo of a baby goat tugging at the shirttail of a 4-year-old boy at the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead. Photographer John Sleezer not only caught the nibble but also the boy in the act of stepping off a tree stump to elude his pursuer.     

~ “Tragic loss highlights revoked driving toll” (A-1, Saturday, April 3) — Excellent follow-up by Christine Vendel on an earlier story about Clayton (Revoked and Dangerous) Dunlap, whose out-of-control SUV killed 12-year-old Damian Slayton and seriously injured his mother in a crash at Watkins Drive and Gregory. Vendel reported that Jackson County Court officials and Kansas City police intend to crack down on revoked drivers.  

~ “Model parole program collapses with budget” (Sunday, April 4) –Auspicious kick-off to a what promises to be an informative, occasional series about state budget cuts in Kansas and Missouri. Rick Montgomery wrote about the gutting of a program that provided broad treatment and support services to Kansas inmates about to re-enter society.   

Kraske

~ “He’s the reason you’re not bored with the board” (B-2, Sunday, April 4) — In his weekly political column, Steve Kraske explained the presence of all those yard signs for Crispin Rea Jr., Kyleen Carroll and Joseph Jackson, Kansas City School Board candidates. (All three won last Tuesday.) Current board member, 30-year-old Airick Leonard West, who supported Superintendent John Covington’s school-contraction plan, stoked up a big effort on those candidates’ behalf. The caveat: The column would have benefitted from a photo of West, whom many people, including me, wouldn’t recognize on the street.   

~ “She saves at a speedy clip” (A-1, Tuesday, April 6) — Irrepressible story about “extreme couponer” Brandie Mavich of south Kansas City. James A. Fussell, of The Star’s features department, wrote colorfully that when the sales clerk started deducting the coupon savings from Ms. Mavich’s tab, “The register began to smoke, or at least it should have.”   

~ “No longer sold on real estate” (D-1, Tuesday, April 6) — Timely piece by Kevin Collison about the thinning ranks of real estate agents as the home-selling business has fallen on hard times. 

~ “”Power battle turns deadly in central Asian country” (A-1, Thursday, April 8) — An international story…out front. Hooray! 

Prunes   

#% Still no sighting of a Pope story on the front page. The Star had a good opportunity on Sunday, April 4, with an Associated Press story about two Arizona priest-abuse cases that languished under Benedict XVI before he became pope. That story, which ended up on A-9, could have substituted for Lee Hill Kavanaugh’s local story about a teen cancer patient’s visit to the U.S. Supreme Court. Once again, The Star cast the die with an “all-local” front. The result? Craps.  

#% “Desperate hunt for miners” (A-1, Tuesday, April 6). Well, at least the story made the front page. But, boy, was there a gaffe in this story. The overline (above the headline) and the story’s first sentence  both said, authoritatively and with finality, that the blast “killed 12.” At the bottom of the front page, before the story “jumped” to the inside, the article noted that “others were thought to be missing,” but it brushed past that point quickly. What a surprise, then — for Star readers, anyway — when, radio and TV reports on Tuesday morning reported that the death toll had jumped to 25.  The story should have said that “at least” 12 people were killed and should have emphasized that the death toll could rise. The story was still developing when The Star went to press Monday night, so enveloping the story in a tone of finality was a big mistake.  

#% “Finally, Tiger’s apology is right” (A-1, Tuesday, April 6) — Appearing on The New York Times’ front page this day were, among others, stories about the U.S. seeking a record $16 million fine against Toyota and President Obama revamping American nuclear strategy. Star readers got neither or those stories on A-1 but, instead, a Jason Whitlock column about Tiger Woods speaking to the media.     

#% “It’s a UConn job” (B-1, Wednesday, April 7) — This is a joke, right, sports editors? The UConn women completed a second consecutive perfect basketball season Tuesday night and it’s worth one paragraph on the sports front, guiding to an inside story? Wow. Pathetic. (By now, readers, you probably know I’m a diehard women’s basketball fan. Nevertheless….)            

Special category: ” ‘Personhood’ movement seeks end to abortion” (A-1, Tuesday, April 6) — This one probably had some readers scratching their heads. The story, by The Star’s Laura Bauer, is about several states in which anti-abortion activists are trying to extend the legal definition of “person” to cover the fertilized egg. The story measures 33 column inches, but less than three inches of that are on the front page. When a story is “buried” on the front page like this, it’s usually because the editors aren’t convinced of the strength of the story, but they are hesitant to consign it to the inside because a lot of time and effort has been invested. It usually leaves the reporter miffed about the placement (or “play,” as it’s called in the newsroom) but happy that it goes onto his or her A-1 count.

I jumped a plane down to San Antone Tuesday to catch the final game of the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. Came back yesterday with a lot of great memories and a quick travelogue for you.

River Walk

Before the game between Stanford and Connecticut, fans jammed the unparalleled River Walk, a network of pathways, bordered by bars, restaurants and hotels, along the San Antonio River.  

Even though the River Walk is virtually right in front of your nose, it can be hard for first-time visitors to find. That’s because it’s below street level. While the traffic whizzes by above, there’s nothing but foot traffic, conversation and the sounds of commerce at river level.

Tower of the Americas (background)

There’s plenty to see above ground, too, including the 750-foot-tall Tower of the Americas, built for the 1968 World’s Fair, HemisFair ’68. When it’s time to set off for an event at the Alamodome, the city’s major sports venue, the tower serves as guidepost. Just walk toward the tower and you can’t miss the stadium.

Below, fans streamed toward the Alamodome, and when they reached a plaza a few hundred yards from the entrance, a mariachi band was there to entertain them.

Inside the stadium, scores of military members got a rousing reception from the crowd..and from a special guest. The special guest was a big hit, too. Until, that is, air space over San Antonio was shut down for an hour or more yesterday afternoon while waiting for the special guest to fly out.

Then, pretty soon, the game was over, and Lone-Star-shaped confetti filled the air, as UConn players and fans celebrated  the team’s 53-47 victory.

This month, a former Kansas City Star executive, Mark Contreras, became chairman of the Newspaper Association of America, a trade association that represents the country’s largest daily newspapers. Since 2006, Contreras, 48, has been senior vice president for newspapers at Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co., where he oversees 28 daily and community newspapers. 

Mark Contreras

Contreras worked at The Star for from 1989 to 1994, serving four years as metro circulation manager and one year as retail display advertising director.

In February, Contreras discussed various journalistic issues in a wide-ranging interview with Forbes magazine. Among other things, Contreras talked about the future of American newspapers and the deep staff cuts that many papers have made to keep from going out of business. Following are excerpts from that interview. (If you’d like to read the entire interview, here’s the link.) 

Newspapers have suffered three straight years of falling ad revenue. Will that decline be halted in 2010?

The ad declines are becoming smaller on a year over year basis. Will we get back to flat numbers this year? I don’t know. We’re being cautious on our outlook. The visibility of what the next two quarters bring has never been murkier.

Why is that?

You have continued economic uncertainty in the stock market and the economies of Florida and California aren’t out of the woods yet. Until we see some true flatness we’re going to be cautious.

Colossal staff reductions, along with the fact that some newspapers are the last men standing in their respective markets, would seem to put some papers on a sound footing for a cyclical rebound. True?

When you consider the expense cuts we’ve made since 2009–from cuts in pension plans, salaries, 401(k) matches, plus reductions in the workforce–that’s a lot. It all helps, but only for a short time. Until you get stability in the top line, there’s no reason to pop any champagne bottles.

As newspapers have faltered, citizen journalism has rushed in. Does this brand of reporting play a role at Scripps?

There will always be a need for well-trained, relatively well-paid, professional journalists to populate the pages of our newspapers and Web sites. But that’s not to say they have to be the sole source of news gathering. In the past three years we’ve expanded the use of stringers and correspondents, mostly to grow the footprint of our local news coverage. We’ve gone from less than 5% of our news budgets devoted to stringers to close to 12% now. Readers understand when you have to make financial sacrifices. But if the only way you do it is by cutting heads in the newsroom and depriving readers of a healthy diet of news, that’s a path to nowhere. Even as advertising pressures have driven the number of pages down, we’ve tried to expand our local news.

What do you think the future holds for the wave of nonprofit, foundation-backed journalism experiments like the Bay Area News Project and Texas Tribune?

I’m on the board of Cincinnati Public Radio, which gives me some sense of what it takes to run a radio station just on public donations. It’s not easy. Maintaining this model takes years of generating local donations. I admire the ambitions of folks starting these ventures, but I think they’re going to find that the reality of financing them is much more difficult than they bargained for.

Michael Eisner (former chairman of the Walt Disney Co.) said recently that the old media is on a “death march” and that Web content is an “explosion ready to happen.” Hasn’t it already pretty well exploded? As a member of the old media, what’s your reaction?

Here are a couple of factoids: Audience is up. Our subscriber churn (turnover) has never been lower. Today we have the most stable circulation base we’ve ever had…Newspaper revenue in the 1940s used to be composed of 60% advertising, 40% circulation. In the decades after that, classified ad revenue ballooned. In 2006 it had gotten so out of whack that we drew 83% from advertising, 17% from circulation. We’re now returning to that 60/40 model. Circulation is a much more stable source of revenue. As of the third quarter of last year, all of our newspapers were profitable. That will probably hold for the fourth quarter, too.

For years now, people all over the country have been canceling their daily-newspaper subscriptions and turning to the Internet for their news. The situation is somewhat understandable, what with people pressed for time and being able to get a lot of free information at the click of the mouse. But, over and over, newspapers continue to demonstrate their importance, impact and, to me, irreplaceability.

Here are two recent examples, one at the local level, one at the national level.

Local  __  On Tuesday, March 30, in the wake of the Watkins Drive crash that killed 12-year-old Damian Slayton and seriously injured his mother, Bri Kneisley, The Star’s Christine Vendel reported in a front-page story that the driver of the SUV, 30-year-old Clayton R. Dunlap, had, at the time of the crash, 16 convictions for driving without a valid license. Dunlap, 30, is now in custody, charged with second-degree murder and driving, again, with a revoked license.

The story struck a nerve with the public, and, by extension, with law enforcement officials.  The outrage, of course, was this: How in God’s name could a guy with 16 convictions for driving without a valid license be behind the wheel, posing a threat to innocent people?

There is no good answer, of course. Robert Beaird, the Jackson County Circuit Court judge who lowered Dunlap’s bond last month, enabling him to go free, cited a shortage of jail beds.  Although Vendel couldn’t make the public feel any better about the maddening loss of a 12-year-old innocent, she could tap into the anger. She came back with a front-page story on Saturday, April 3, in which court officials and police vowed to keep more revoked drivers behind bars. “The 16th Judicial Circuit Court is taking a strong look at how bonds are set in driving-while-revoked cases,” a court spokeswoman was quoted as saying. 

In addition, a police sergeant who leads the traffic investigations squad, said his unit was planning six driver’s license checkpoints, starting in May. “This will be the first time we’ve done this at such a large scale,” the sergeant said. 

Would the police and courts have initiated a crackdown in the absence of a strong, coal-stoking story from The Star? Maybe. But you can bet that the March 30 story had Judge Beaird twisting uncomfortably in his easy chair and buttonholing other judges about the need for action. And it had the police scurrying into meetings to plan a full-frontal assault on the idiots who have been revoked and continue to drive with impunity.

National __ On Thursday, April 1, The New York Times ran a front-page story under the headline, “Rushed from Haiti by U.S., only to be jailed for lacking visas.” The story told how, more than two months after the devastating Haitian earthquake, more than 30 survivors who boarded planes to the U.S. remained “prisoners of the United States immigration system.” Prisoners, literally. Locked up in detention centers in Florida.

How can that be, you ask? When they landed in the U.S. without visas, immigration authorities took them into custody and held them for deportation. But deportations to Haiti have been suspended since the earthquake. So, what to do with the new arrivals? Well, lock ’em up, immigration officials concluded. And they did, to the frustration and despair of the refugees’ relatives.

The uncle of two men — 20 and 25 years old — who had been in jail since they arrived in Orlando on Jan. 19, told The Times: “Every time I called immigration, they told me they will release them in two or three weeks, and now it’s almost three months.”

Even as The Times was assembling its story, immigration officials were all but acknowledging the stupidity of their actions. A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told a Times reporter that the  30 detainees “were being processed for release.”

In a departure from its sometimes-glacial pace, the federal government impersonated an accelerator-sticking Toyota: The Times was able to report the next day, April 12, that more than three dozen earthquake survivors had been released from immigration jails in Florida. Officials had decided that the refugees could be returned to Haiti when deportations resumed.

Now, why couldn’t the government have come to that logical conclusion in the first place? Well, that’s because The New York Times couldn’t point Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the logical direction until the paper discovered the situation.

Would those refugees still be sitting in jails were it not for The Times’ reporting? I’d bet on it.