Monday, March 30, 2009

Kansas City Star cuts back on coverage of local news

John Landsberg has word the Kansas City Star is slashing its coverage of local news.
Just a few years ago the Kansas City Star had an aggressive policy of going after smaller newspapers (and their advertisers) that served areas outside the central city.


The McClatchy-owned paper opened a series of offices surrounding the central city and published news of local interest. The paper could offer advertisers targeted messages at competitive rates.



However, today the worm is turning. While many suburban papers such as Sun Publications are flourishing, the Star is finding itself eliminating offices, staffers and coverage in those areas.



BLC has now learned that the final edition of the Wyandotte/Leavenworth County Neighborhood News will be published Wednesday (4/1). Those counties will no longer have a special section.



In addition, three Neighborhood News weeklies in the Northland will cut back to once a week, as well as in eastern Jackson County.



Other weekly News sections in areas like Johnson County are a shell of their previous size.
The smaller KC Star will be full of wire stories and filler. Which leaves the door wide open for bloggers to cover local news that people are interested in. Hat tip: comments
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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the KC Red Star and Sickle wanted to continue to report the local news, someone would have to get off their fat ass and investigate a lead. The truth is, the Democrats don’t want their dealings investigated. Who doesn’t get that?

John Altevogt said...

This is not the loss it would seem. The WYCO branch is basically a regurgitation service for the UG.

They have literally fled from one major story about the UG after another while spewing out happy chat.

80% of the houses in WYCO are dramatically over appraised. The Bonner Springs Chieftain has run two articles on the problem. The Star has run none, and has steadfasyly fled from the story while running crap from the UG about mill levies dropping.

At one time the WYCO bureau was a real spring board for investigative reporters. However, since Art Brisbane became publisher and then passed the job on to his butt boy Zieman, The Star has been a handmaiden to corruption and it will not be missed. Good Riddance to bad rubbish.

Anonymous said...

Put out the cat, lock the door, and turn off the lights.
Say goodnight Gracie!

Anonymous said...

Good news, Rhonda has another flat tire!
-----------
Dear Mr. Charles:
We have updated our website to reflect the fact that [Rhonda Chriss Lokeman is no longer writing columns for Creators Syndicate.] Her last column was published on December 28, 2008.
Thank you for bringing this oversight to our attention.

http://willnotbetelevised.com/tv/

Anonymous said...

So, Creators Syndicate has finally removed the beast from their list, but the Scar has not? You could believe Rho has a special deal with the publisher or something. There is absolutely no reason to keep a picture of Rhonda anywhere in KC any longer. Zeiman is a whackjob. It’s like a mug shot of her now that she is the laughingstock of KC. Doesn’t he know that?

John Altevogt said...

How to explain....

Go back and look at that picture again. Pretend you're mark and you want to tell Rhonda what you wrote to us.

She just pulled into the driveway on three wheels with a full head of steam and a snoot full after talking to her criminal attorney.

Go ahead explain to your cutie pie that you're going to pull her plug because she's a laughingstock.

Anonymous said...

I see your point. The minute he said that she'd just put a lock on her underwear drawer and Mark would be stuck with mundane entertainment like Golf or something....or worse, sell his dress up pictures to a KC Blogger group. I'll bet they would pay a premium.

Anonymous said...

As a former Star employee -- who always regarded Rhonda Lokeman's columns as the vacuous pieces of crap they were -- I have to ask: Don't you people have ANYTHING else better to talk about?

Epidemic mismanagement? Continual water-torture layoffs? A product that costs more even as its value shrinks?

Nah. Let's keep making fun of "three wheel." That NEVER gets old.

("Larry The Cable Guy" is an easy target too, but his roast on Comedy Central was actually FUNNY.)

Anonymous said...

Liberals picking and choosing the news ‘they’ want for others! Look in a mirror buddy, YOU are one of the reasons the Scar is going down the tubes!
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Re: “Nah. Let's keep making fun of "three wheel." That NEVER gets old.”
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Now tell us the ugly mean jokes about Gov. Palin ‘NEVER’ got old before the election. Lokeman deserves to be outed for the stupid jerk she is. Her sorry-ass photo is still on the Scar site.

However long it takes! Stay strong!

Anonymous said...

Obamabot says, “..roast on Comedy Central was actually FUNNY”
So, you are comparing posters here, to professional comedy writers?
That is probably a compliment really, and BTW, your post is hilarious.

Cue: Hahahahahaha
Cue: Applause

Anonymous said...

The McClatchy’s plan to run honest small newspapers out of business worked. They could spread their biased, liberal propaganda all around the outlying areas. Like most big cities, the press has pandering to the ignorati, and didn’t realize their audience had turned into robots. It is ironic that the new business model of the day is local news still sells. The Red Star wouldn’t know the meaning of catering to the news readers want, and not genuflect to a corrupt corporation’s idea of what is good for the little people.

Anonymous said...

As a former Star employee -- who always regarded Rhonda Lokeman's columns as the vacuous pieces of crap they were -- I have to ask: Don't you people have ANYTHING else better to talk about?

===================================
We talk about all the things that you demand that we do, but, you no longer control or dictate what conversations can be had.

I realize that the culture of the Star was that of juvenile glee and celebration over being able to dictate what was newsworthy and what was not as I used to work there myself.

I remember well the snickering over intentionally spiking an AP story just to piss people off and see if you could get it past an editor. You have to learn that those days are long gone and no matter what you do, that divine power is gone. You do not get to decide for anyone else what is funny and what is not. It's a tough pill to swallow, but you will recover.

Anonymous said...

How will we know when this cut back on coverage of local news actually begins? The Scar’s local news is so pathetic, it looks cut-to-the-bone scanty already to me. The KC bloggers run circles around the so-called journalists at the Scar. Affirmative action hires are millstones around the scrawny neck of a once great newspaper. Why did everyone just stand around and watch the massacre?

John Altevogt said...

In WYCO the only ones affected by this will be that the UG will have a tougher time getting its message out.

As for picking on Lokeman, yes, I'm aware of management incompetence, and wrote about it, and I have friends in there and waited with them through all of these tortuous layoffs, watching some leave and others stay.

But ultimately you just started suffering. Our community has been suffering for years. The worst has been since Brisbane came in and became a lawn jockey at The River Club, pimping for every corrupt scam that came down the pike.

While you were on the inside, I was on the outside trying to get honest candidates elected while your editorial board endorsed drunken judges and corrupt congressmen.

We fought against a corrupt legal system that refused to enforce the laws against the abortion industry while your paper received awards from the abortion industry *and actually accepted them*.

I've watched while one friend after another was savaged day in and day out in one of The Star's manufactured hate campaigns and you want to talk about your water torture? You still have your reputation. Many people, despite doing the best they could for their community, had theirs trashed by a rag that was no better than Der Sturmer when it came to spewing hatred and bigotry.

I'm not happy that good reporters are out on the street while journalistic whores like Derek Donovan, Lewis Diuguid, Mary Sanchez, Merriam Pepper and Judy Thomas are still inside disgracing the entire profession.

But I see nothing in your writing (other than you're up at 3:30 in the morning) that would indicate that you gave a damn about any of the concerns I mentioned above.

I guarantee you, I care a lot more about the destruction of your profession and the implications that has for this country than you ever cared for what was happening to The Star's victims while you were inside.

So right now it's any port in a storm for a situation that just isn't funny for anybody.