Saturday, April 18, 2009

Sunday Kansas City Star goes to $2 a copy

Want a single copy of Sunday's Kansas City Star? You'll have to shell out $2 starting tomorrow. Stickers showing the new price have already been posted on the boxes. In Kansas City the Sunday Star had been at $1.50; outside the region the Sunday Star has been $2 for some time.

Thanks to the reader who sent the photo.
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20 comments:

John Altevogt said...

You too can spend $2.00 increasing corruption in your community.

Anonymous said...

$2, $5, who cares. Less people will buy it, suscribe to it, or read it.

If the best they can do is to raise the price for less content, and more AP cut and paste, they should simply close up shop and go back to Cuba.

Anonymous said...

Maybe there is a 50-cent coupon for The Star in the few inserts!?!

Anonymous said...

Not a surprise that these guys have failed basic economics. When demand is dropping, you don't increase price - the result if a further erosion of demand.

John Altevogt said...

The Star actually believes that it makes the laws, economic and otherwise. When a local left-wing anti-evangelical hate group forgot to obey the regulations that want imposed on everyone else and didn't turn in their annual corporate renewal (one page) we captured the name.

However, when the publisher, most of the editorial board and many of the reporters are defacto members of said hate group, pal around with them, attend the meetings as participants, work with them on front groups for anti-second amendment legislation, the law doesn't matter.

They continued to refer to the hate group by our newly acquired name. When we complained the responses we got were "Don't care" (that's a quote from one of their reporters) and from Miriam Pepper, the bigot in charge of the editorial page, we were informed that we did not meet The Star's criteria for ownership of the name, laws be damned.

Today, when I post on The Star's website I use the hate group's former name because I can, because we own it. As a result, I cannot post under the editorial board's Midwest Voices, although I can and do post elsewhere under the articles and editorials that are outside their immediate control.

Like most liberals, The Star doesn't think it has to obey laws whether they be the laws of nature, economics, or the state. They believe they are above the law.

Anonymous said...

The Red Star and Sickle has lost all credibility. ‘Truth to Power’ -What a laugh! If any newspaper deserves to go kaput, it is Zieman’s, for his dishonest pimping for Obama.
2Ȼ is closer to its worth than $2.
Wait, that is my 2Ȼ worth, so the Red Star is worth, $0.00. That is 'Change you can believe in.'

Anonymous said...

What does MNI give me for $2 that's better than it was, say two years ago?

Anonymous said...

When demand is dropping, you don't increase price - the result if a further erosion of demand.

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Actually, when you've determined that demand will never return and the end is near, raising the price and cutting service is exactly what you do.

The only thing that matters is building enough cash to cover your parachute before the creditors wise up and shut you down.

John Altevogt said...

That would also explain why they're keeping the most useless members of the staff, like the editorial staff and their long since exposed as a phony "Reader's" Rep. along with a top heavy organizational structure with no Indians and many chiefs.

Even they know the game is up, it's just loot the till as long as possible and brown nose the establishment even more in the hopes of getting a job after McClatchy goes bankrupt.

Anonymous said...

John, you seem to have only about five thoughts (to use the term generously), none based on logic, fact or research, which you keep recycling. That's the way I remember your column in the Star years ago. Has it ever occurred to you that that's why your column was canceled -- because you became a bore?

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:19 So then what are your thoughts?

Why is your MNI turd spinning around the toilet bowel?

Since it’s not bias, DNC talking points, or elitism, then why is it no one wants their AP cut and paste crappy paper?

CRICKETS?

John Altevogt said...

Uh, actually, my column was canceled because I wrote about the corrupt behavior of some of Art Brisbane's pals. My editor Rich Hood courageously published the columns knowing that it could cost him his job (and it eventually did).

Later, Rich refused to give The Star's endorsement to one of the main subjects of the column based on the research I'd presented in the column. Shortly thereafter he was fired after 29 year with The Star as an investigative reporter and editorial page editor.

His position was allegedly eliminated however Brisbane had a job notice posted on Editor and Publisher (I believe) which implied that the previous editor was being replaced because of several unattractive traits and then The Star gave the position to Miriam Pepper, one of their affirmative action babies over Steve Winn, the Deputy Editorial Page Editor. Winn was recently terminated in the last purge.

Under Pepper The Star's editorial page has been an absolute lackey for some of the sleaziest elements in metro area politics.

As for the column, I got $50 a column and worked very hard on them since I was the only one remotely addressing local issues from a conservative perspective at The Star. I was told that my columns were among the most widely read and Rich submitted several of them to journalistic organizations to be considered for awards. Never got any.

Far from being upset by the news the column was being pulled, I was relieved. The following year my income went up $22,000.00, I was given other opportunities to write and turned down two different requests to do talk radio.

The columns morphed into two parters. Part one was where I covered events that The Star refused to cover and part two was where I opined on them, all in around 650 words.

An example of a story I exposed was one where a local DJ got drunk at a local on air event and started screaming at some Hispanic kids calling them "Goddamn spics" and "Goddamn foreigners". The Star's two entertainment reporters both knew about it but were so beholden to the station's manager for tips that they remained silent about it.

Thanks to my editor, Rich Hood and the questions he posed to me during the time I wrote my column I discovered an enormous amount of information about corruption in Kansas City (and The Star's role in perpetuating that corruption).

I also learned the value of a good copy editor. All of the ones I worked with were great, as was Steve Winn, Rich's deputy. He was a real professional, as was Rich, and I was honored to work with them.

Anytime you weasels want to bring up The Star, and my experiences with it, have at it. We could even discuss the obscene phone call I got from Derek Donovan, or the maliciously libelous column he recently wrote about me and had to pull. Go ahead, open any door you want.

John Altevogt said...

Oh, and 1:19, you wouldn't know logic, facts, or research if they rose up and bit you on the ass. I therefore deduce that you're one of the remaining Star employees, since that's what they seem to cling to. How's that for logic, I even used the word deduce.

Anonymous said...

1:19 here again. Thanks, John, for demonstrating my original point.

John Altevogt said...

Did you have an original point? Actually, my column was heavily vetted and I always provided footnotes for the factual points. At one point the lawyers were complaining that they had too much factual content for editorial page stuff.

That said, who cares what you think? I note you haven't refuted a single point I've made. You just bandy about the usual left-wing troll cliches.

As is often pointed out on this blog, the days of media censorship by the left-wing fascist media are over. Have a nice day.

Anonymous said...

John,

Great posts, and many thanks for the insight into the corrupt beast

Anonymous said...

1:19 here again. Thanks, John, for demonstrating my original point.

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Actually he made you look very very bad. Rather, like a fool.

Anonymous said...

Don't take my word for it. Go to the public library, get the KC Star microfilm from about 10 years ago, and read his columns.

John Altevogt said...

Please do. I wrote a trilogy on state finance that has held up quite well. Then there were the ones about Mark Parkinson the then Kansas Republican Party Chair. He's since bolted the party to become Kathleen Sebeljevich's Lt. Governor. I told you what a weasel he was before that happened.

I wrote another trilogy on the evolution controversy in Kansas and those are still floating around on various sites on the Internet.

Then there are the two that got the column terminated when I wrote about a State Senator, David Adkins, who headed up a committee that sent a million dollar plus grant to a "charity" run by his wife. Both Adkins and his wife were "employed" by the foundation that handled the money.

The money was railroaded through the committee and also had a pile in it for the organization that employed the wife of another state senator. Adkins' campaign adviser also received money from the wife's "charity".

The story was originally broken by an organization of journalists working on a Ralph Nader 50 States Project documenting corruption in state government.

The Wichita Eagle had roughly 2 type written pages on it and The Star had about 2 paragraphs because Art Brisbane was pals with Adkins and his wife. He sat on the advisory committee of the foundation and was also the co-chair of another scandal ridden left-wing front group that shared an office with Adkins' wife's group. Brisbane made the decision to terminate the column the day after I the column chasing the money back to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation was published.

My columns followed up in much more detail. During my research, records requests for information to be used in a column for use solely in the Kansas City Star were opposed by the same firm that represented The Star with The Star's blessing.

After the column was terminated I raised over $20,000.00 to fight an open records action to try and find out what happened to the money. I received not one ounce of assistance, or even moral support from the Kansas media. To this day all you have to do to hide what you're doing with the taxpayer's money in the state of Kansas is park the records in a different state and you have no remedy as a citizen of the state of Kansas in the state of Kansas.

Ironically, my editor told me that this column could get us both fired, and he was right. I can't praise him enough for his courage. He knew better than I who the sacred cows were at The Star and yet he had the courage to let me do the research. I lost a column I both loved and hated and he lost a career that he had worked at for 29 years.

Ultimately, Rich got the last laugh. He now has a very safe and very well paying job with the feds while the whore Brisbane was last heard from "working" as a "consultant".

Look the columns up all you want. I believe they date from 98 - 99 and Rich Hood's integrity as an editor they never would have happened much less lasted that long and I believe they'll stand the test of time.

kimberlyD said...

Lol a male scat fight...rrreeaar. John's lips are busy these days, when they're not kissing ass... they're singing canary. But to my original point of finding this site. Nice to see a site bent on spreading the word about KC Star. I recently signed up for a "special discounted subscription" gave KC Star my debit card # and they are having fun adding a charge to it every other day. In 2 weeks, that 99 cent week-end special has cost me $100.03 and when I try to call, I get people who can barely speak English which suggests to me that KC STAR outsources their telecommunications. How Patriotic of you Kansas City Star. Every time I call about a new charge on my debit, with-in 2 days they invite me to call them back because they have added a new charge. I canceled my subscription after 2 weeks and $100.03 in charges. And I refuse to buy the paper at the stands. I'll buy the mfg' coupons I need off local joes on ebay, see the sale ads and news on-line and keep my debit card number to myself from now on.