KICKASS TKC TIPSTERS are saying that
Urban Times could be the next Kansas City publication casualty.
Personally, I like dancing on the grave of any dead tree publication so their hardships haven't inspired much grief on my part.
Here are just a few of the reasons to (gleefully) await the demise of Urban Times (Other than the fact that the entire publication is nothing more than a marketing gimmick for Boveri Realty Group):
The most recent publisher's letter from Christina Boveri announces that they are now going bi-monthly from monthly because of the recession. And she literally begs the readers to send advertisers their way. It was pretty desperate, she might as well have just asked people to send a dollar in the mail.
CampKC staffers are complaining (LOUDLY) that Urban Times stole their photos (with attribution but no permission) in the Urban Times April issue on page 39. Sorry print people, you're not a blog and have to play by the rules.
Their current issue has 21 pages of advertising out of a folio of 82 pages. That ratio probably barely pays the print bills let alone their contractors, sales commissions, staff or contractors. Forget about profit.
Honestly . . . Does anyone refer to themselves as "Urban" . . . The term is either used pejoratively or as some marketing gimmick . . . From the inception, this mag has been fudged.
They don't really update their website . . . I think they're still on the March issue . . . And I think the Cauthen Cover was probably their crowning achievement.
All things considered . . . This HOT MESS of a magazine might not be too much longer for this world in much the same way that, just as I predicted, a great many of the smartest former Star Staffers are now working in PR.
And while I want to note that the demise of a Condo & Loft mag reflects the overall failure of the so-called "Kansas City Downtown Renaissance" . . . The fact is, their forthcoming departure from the metro media landscape doesn't really matter.