Thursday, October 30, 2008

Update on Kansas City Star -- reporter says more layoffs would be damaging to the newspaper

Last week I noted that additional layoffs at the Kansas City Star were rumored to be enacted before Thanksgiving.

Today, an anonymous KC Star reporter writes this:
"If I am counting correctly, there are currently 34 reporters on The Star's Metro Desk. That includes 15 in the bureaus which are in Johnson County, eastern Jackson County, Wyandotte County and the Northland, as well as two night desk reporters.

"There are 13 editors and 1 assistant managing editor on the Metro Desk. This does not include the state desk which includes (Dave) Helling, (Steve) Kraske, the statehouse reporters, and traveling correspondents like Scott Canon and Rick Montgomery.

"Since the layoffs, only one Metro Desk editor has gotten the pink slip while another was moved to a reporting position. On the other hand, 11 Metro Desk reporters have either been laid off, took buyouts or left for other jobs.

"What the desk has now is pretty much 1 editor for every 3 reporters. don't be surprised if that ratio falls to 2 reporters for every editor before Thanksgiving.

"I encourage people reading this Web site to ask themselves if The Star's Metro section is a better product today than it was a year ago. Are you better informed about the elections this year than you were about the elections in 2006? Are the stories in-depth? My answer to all three questions are no."

The KC Star raised its newsstand price from 50 cents to 75 cents this month. In June, The Star cut 120 jobs, and cut another 65 employees in September.
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Previous:
More cuts at McClatchy's Kansas City Star?... word of new cuts comes just days after subscription price increase
Advertising problems at Kansas City Star?
65 employees leaving the Kansas City Star

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does not take a large staff to reprint Howard Dean's DNC news letter or Obama's campaign press releases. Everything will be just fine.

Anonymous said...

The problem with the reporter's story is they sat by and did NO reporting when almost the entire advertising division was let go....where was the sad story then? Yes, I feel for them but they never spoke up in print when they saw their fellow employees getting screwed and jobs sent to India. What goes around comes around. Not pretty is it?

Guess some of you will be spending Thanksgiving the same way we are....with out a job.