Bloggers say Kansas City Star hasn't delivered on its promise to increase local coverage

Earlier this week, the Kansas City Star announced it was folding the Metro section into the A section to increase local coverage. John Lofflin and Matt Kelsey look at Thursday's KC Star and conclude the amount of local news is about what it was before the announcement:

This morning the front page read exactly like front pages before the promise of local news. The lead story was datelined Washington and written by a McClatchy correspondent. It did not mention Kansas City on page one. The second was a “localized” story, an obviously unoriginal take on yesterday's Wall Street Journal piece concerning security at utility plants. Call this “semi-local” just to be generous. The third piece was also “localized;” a story about a new television reality show with a quote from a local attorney barely squeezed onto page one before the jump. The fourth was a story about brown fat, again “localized.” Anyone with Internet access or a subscription could have read about this yesterday in the New York Times.

Now you know how the Star defines local… so far. Major league franchises, Washington D.C., and -- count 'em -- three “localized” stories, two reported yesterday in other newspapers.

And they wonder why the Grand old man is sinking?

Maybe the Star did a better job with local news today. Any KC readers want to leave a report on Friday's paper?

Hat tip: comments

.

.