TKC EXCLUSIVE QUESTION!!! KANSAS CITY STAR EDITORIAL PAGE ABANDONED: COULD HARD RIGHT TURN TO TRY AND SAVE THE NEWSPAPER LURE READERS BACK?!?
This week that Kansas City Star has been publishing nothing but cartoons and letters to the editor.
A great many TKC readers have complained about this fact and the dearth of editorial content during an election season that tends to inspire more reader participation is troubling to many local news junkies.
The reported firing of Yael Abouhalkah and Lewis Diuguid's decision to leave on his own terms have left the paper without any real voice given that Barb Shelly is now ruining The Pitch with her progressive talking point regurgitation and nobody expects much out of Mary Sanchez. But the current hard times of the newspaper are easy to see for the last remaining handful of folks who pick up the newsprint regularly.
Here's KICK-ASS TKC INSIDER INFO on the new direction of the paper that threatens to turn the politics of Kansas City upside down . . .
Checkit:
KANSAS CITY INSIDERS OFFER FIRST WORD OF NEW CONSERVATIVE "BALANCE" COMING TO THE KANSAS CITY STAR THAT ALREADY HAS HARD LINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUPPORTERS CONCERNED!!!
Fact is . . . Progressive politics were an integral part of the newspaper's decline and the hope is that balance will bring readers back.
BUT IS IT TOO LATE TO LURE PEOPLE BACK TO THE NEWSPAPER WITH A FEW RIGHT LEANING COLUMNS???
Columnists on their way are touted as "More Conservative than Trump" and it's hard to deny that description should at least pique the interests of avid news readers.
Still, the reality is that the Star's printing biz isn't as lucrative as newspaper cheerleaders claim and would do better on its own . . . Google and Facebook dominate the advertising market ahead of all competitors and set prices far too low for large scale publishers with huge salary demands like the Star to compete . . . Still, there is hope for survival despite the fact that subscribers and biz keep abandoning the increasingly niche publication during the current social media epoch.
So will this upcoming Conservative move bring the Star back from the edge of doom??? You decide . . .
I'll read the paper if they syndicate a column from Trump!
ReplyDeleteThat would be worth picking up.
Too little, too late.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a question of left vs.right. We're talking about young vs. old and people just aren't accustomed to reading the paper any more. Look around. Do you see anybody with a newspaper nowadays? People are on their phones. That's all they do with their time is constantly play with their phones.
That's a problem that a few more columns aren't going to overcome. I would like to see more balance in the paper but I don't have any illusions that it will help them survive.
Don't forget TKC, they are still subsidized from serious tax discounting from City Hall and Jackson County.
ReplyDeleteSo we're really just talking about national issues and the overall liberal agenda. In terms of local politics, they are in no position to criticize local elected officials. So this won't be that much of a change. They used to syndicate Ann Coulter and that was the only reason I picked up their paper.
It never bothered me that the local columnists were left or right but it did bother me that they were cheerleaders for the corruption that has ruined our city. They would consistently trash those who might try to clean up the mess. After 35 years I could no longer support it.
ReplyDeleteIf the new publisher wishes to increase circulation an apology for the actions of Yael would be in order.
No one givers a shit about legacy media. The Star is history. If they want to flop around like a beached whale it is their money, but in the end they are dead. You can count the successful newspapers in America on your fingers. Kansas City, as ass backwards as it is, wont save careers for these media tree huggers. Get out, retrain, get a real job. The party is just about over.
ReplyDeleteThe letters page has been fairly well balanced. That's a change. With Diuguid in charge it was not. But the Star is still by McClatchy and it is just not in their DNA to balance their opinion columns.
ReplyDeleteMore conservative than Trump??? Like all eastern republicans, Donald Trump isn't a conservative.
ReplyDeleteWill they be more interesting than Trump? THAT is the real question.
DeleteThey need to serve up more internet slop and misinformation.
ReplyDeleteRun an occasional ad like a jiffy new herbal remedy for people who have calluses on their ass.
The Star's downward spiral started long ago and was simply accelerated by their business side totally missing the impact of the internet, particularly on advertising revenue.
ReplyDeleteAnd the only place to cut costs is people, with the highest-paid most experienced reporters the first to go.
Which accelerates the downward spiral.
The current "publisher" is a marketing guy who understands that his only job is to try to keep the ink black in the line that represents the Star on the McClatchey financial statement.
Small market, out-of-town ownership, diminishing ad revenue, and fewer subscribers. Desperate offers like $20 for an online subscription for an entire year.local millenial "entrepreneurs", even though that age cohort would be the last to read an actual newspaper.
And fluff pieces emphasizing weddings and
McClatchey just closed its LAST overseas bureau.
Would the last employee to leave 1729 Grand please turn out the lights.
WAY too late to do any good. It's not about which side of the political spectrum they fall on, it's that their hypocricy has caused the The Star to lose their last shred of credibility. They take incentives from those they should be holding accountable, mold their editorial positions to be in align with those who have granted these, and rail against the policies from which they have benefitted. Hand back the the tax abatement, agree to a REALISTIC assesment of their property, and start holding City leadership accountable, and MAYBE then people will start reading again. Everyone has Drudge and HuffPo if they want to stroke their partisan ego, they need a REAL AND LOCAL paper of record.
ReplyDeleteLike Trump coming to town again and Mike Burke being our next mayor (and about 5,882 other examples), your readers will find you're going to be wrong about this.
ReplyDeleteBut you'll keep visiting every day regardless.
DeleteConstant mockery of Tony Botello is worth everybody's time.
DeleteIt is time well spent. And it has worked.
The Star is a lost cause. They're done.
ReplyDeleteTheir stock price is up from penny stock levels so that is a good sign.
ReplyDelete10:16 said it. I don't read newspapers to find a columnist I agree with. I read them for news and differing perspectives. What I will not do is waste my time reading something that passes for news in the Star. And that anyone would think reading something by Yael, Duiguld, Shelly or Sanchez would leave them better informed is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteI stay informed and get all my opinions from Tony's Kansas City and its AWESOME BLOG COMMUNITY!
ReplyDeleteTrouble is, now people think I'm a racist homophone misogynist idiot who spews made up bullshit and poorly thought out opinions (based on nothing substantive) constantly and they can't stand to be around me and when they're not, they mock me openly and have made me the laughingstock of the entire metro.
BUT I THINK I'M SUPER COOL.
Shhh. Take your meds, tiger. The rest of us are just fine. :)
DeleteWhite supremacy reflects a sociopathic mentality.
ReplyDeleteDefine "worked".
Will never read the Star again. They have disgraced themselves with their constant biased reporting.
ReplyDeleteSORRY LIBERAL TRASH! YOU CANNOT REDEEM YOURSELVES UNTIL YOU APOLOGIZE. AND IT MUST BE DONE QUICKLY.
I'll be waiting and watching real news networks.
^^^^^^^^^ Corn flake.
ReplyDeleteNope @1:26 is right on the money!
ReplyDeleteVote Trump and the newspaper will be Yuuuuge. It'll come back in a major way. You'll see.
ReplyDeleteWho reads the paper anymore? Just subscribe a few good twitter feeds and that's all you need.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest promoters of White Supremacy are, sadly, members of the black race. Unfortunately rather than work for change, they take the low road, the entitlements, beg for money in the Walgreens parking lot or shoplift at Walmart..
ReplyDelete^^^ Sounds like a good description of the White people in the trailer to me. Don't discriminate @2:13. It sounds like you hate all poor people.
ReplyDelete^^^ sounds like you're ready to call in some muscle, Melissa Clark. Black Lies Matter!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteQUIT the Kansas City Star years ago, when they decided to make the SIZE of the paper Smaller and the letter Font Size smaller, making it hard to read !!
as well as it constantly stuffed with loads of advertisements literally falling out of the paper and onto the floor, nothing but worthless crap !
Smaller size paper , smaller size fonts and too much junk stuffed in the paper and I Quit taking that paper !!!
The KC Star back in the 1970's & 1980's was at its best it'll probably ever be , period.
The Paper was of decent size, the letter fonts of decent size and it wasn't chocked full of utter advertisement shit that falls onto the floor back then.
Big Wall Street Corporations took over a lotta news papers since those days and basically ruined them as we've seen thru the years.
One day it'll happen to the internet, and its already started actually with a lotta news sites and the US giving up control of the internet to a UN / United Nations FOREIGN entinity,, known as ICANN
tho they are trying to convince everybody who's clueless enough to believe their bullshit , that its still over seen here in the US in California,,,,,
Any of YOU have any DOUBTS about what I just posted,, about the internet ???????
well, just how truly informed are you ? really ???
Go look it up yourselves - see for yourself !!!
Heres some clues :
ICANN
UN / United Nations foreign entity takes control of the internet
O'bama signs off on giving up US Control of the internet.
By the way,,, this all just happened OCTOBER 1st 2016 too
But majority of the News Media kept it out of the public eyes and kept YOU in the dark about it as they swamped everybody with political spin & bulshit,,, to further Dumb everybody down and keep them Clueless and Naïve and ill informed !!
7:26 nailed it. JE Dunn cheerleaders killed the Star. didja get a pension, Yael?
ReplyDelete