Layoffs at The Star

[smh]

Never Forget.

[zonk]

Bummed that Kevin is leaving! Best of luck to him! The death spiral at the Star continues....

[KCMax]

Kudos to Yael.

A newspaper fact-checks its own right-wing op-ed; hilarity ensues

The Kansas City Star probably thought it was on solid ground when it published an op-ed by Stephen Moore defending the draconian, and economically debilitating, tax cuts instituted by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. (We reported on how the tax cuts have turned Kansas into a smoking ruin here.)

Moore's conservative credentials are impeccable: A former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, he's currently chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and a familiar face on Fox News and CNBC. ..

It turns out Moore's statistics were dead wrong. He later explained that he was citing figures from 2007-2012, not the last five years. But--oops again--he got those figures wrong too. His errors were discovered by Yael T. Abouhalkah, a Star columnist, who took the simple step of cross-checking them against the source, the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Star has run a detailed correction. The Heritage Foundation, which also published a version of Moore's piece, also has run a correction, though not so detailed--it removed the erroneous paragraph and appended a note stating the piece has been "updated to correct an earlier version."

[longviewmo]

I guess this fits here, since it's reductions at the Star:

- The last edition for the "Kansas City Star Magazine" was last Sunday. Fun fact: the mayor was a 17-year-old hippie they interviewed for the first one 45 years ago.
- It appears they're shutting down the online version of the KC Store and possibly ending any book publishing. There's a sale in Leawood for the next two weeks where all books are $2, and there are no books available on their website. They did a similar sale before Christmas in 2013 where everything was like 75% off, but they didn't delete their online stocks in that case.

[DaveKCMO]

There's a sale in Leawood for the next two weeks where all books are $2, and there are no books available on their website.

where in leawood?

[longviewmo]

Old OfficeMax space, 13124 State Line Road, 9-6 Monday through Saturday, 12-5 on Sunday.

[DaveKCMO]

Not open at noon today

[longviewmo]

I think it starts tomorrow.

[FangKC]

I hate that they are selling the books so far outside the central city.

It's too bad about the Star shutting down its' book publishing. I think there are many books related to Kansas City that wouldn't have been published without Star publishing.

[lock+load]

The Star is so far gone. The whole print paper is about the size of a business section 15 years ago. It's sad how it has shriveled up to almost nothing, but they are not making good management decisions there. Time to focus on the areas they can really add value (local news, sports, etc.) and get rid of everything else. Why are they still paying a bunch of old people to tell us their opinions everyday? Opinions are all over the internet and they are free.

[flyingember]

it seems to me they need to become journalists again and do research pieces. I would pay for a sub if this is how they did things. I don't see the point in paying for them to report on an accident at 3pm that happened at 1pm as breaking news (they actually have done this)

they should be the place that does the hard work finding out about government, schools, courts and such and cover everyone involved.

for example they covered the streetcar election except they didn't make any effort other than posting a few quotes and press release material. they needed to be out there finding out about the opposition and the city and giving hard facts about both sides.

[earthling]

Journalistic integrity has gone out the window ever since traditional media has had to compete with bloggers. Too much is now an editorial/opinion or sensationalized piece as a result, too often with a polarized agenda - or whatever clickbait works.

[kboish]

it seems to me they need to become journalists again and do research pieces. I would pay for a sub if this is how they did things. I don't see the point in paying for them to report on an accident at 3pm that happened at 1pm as breaking news (they actually have done this)

they should be the place that does the hard work finding out about government, schools, courts and such and cover everyone involved.

for example they covered the streetcar election except they didn't make any effort other than posting a few quotes and press release material. they needed to be out there finding out about the opposition and the city and giving hard facts about both sides.

Exactly this.

News organization have essentially just become another place to find out what has been posted on Twitter, FB, etc. An article in the Star the other week seemed to use Twitter as its source...

The Newspaper should be giving us more information about the topic. Not just the gossip surrounding it.

[DaveKCMO]

Why are they still paying a bunch of old people to tell us their opinions everyday? Opinions are all over the internet and they are free.

pretty sure all of the opinion writers are doing double duty now... either news or serving on the editorial board (which is very much needed, especially come local election time).

[KCMax]

it seems to me they need to become journalists again and do research pieces. I would pay for a sub if this is how they did things. I don't see the point in paying for them to report on an accident at 3pm that happened at 1pm as breaking news (they actually have done this)

they should be the place that does the hard work finding out about government, schools, courts and such and cover everyone involved.

for example they covered the streetcar election except they didn't make any effort other than posting a few quotes and press release material. they needed to be out there finding out about the opposition and the city and giving hard facts about both sides.

Honestly, the future of real journalism is probably as non-profits.

[KCMax]

Journalistic integrity has gone out the window ever since traditional media has had to compete with bloggers. Too much is now an editorial/opinion or sensationalized piece as a result, too often with a polarized agenda - or whatever clickbait works.

Nah, they don't really compete with bloggers. What happened was (a) craigslist made newspaper's want ads revenue dry up; (b) other ad revenue dried up when newspaper had to compete with much cheaper internet ads; and (c) people have no reason to read print journalism anymore because the news is disseminated free online. Honestly, the old model was an unsustainable model, with want ads subsidizing real journalism, which is why I say the future is probably as a non-profit. I mean, who is doing the big journalistic piece everyone was talking about this year? "Serial" on NPR.

[DaveKCMO]

i like the propublica model. http://www.propublica.org/

[FangKC]

Another loss of revenue came from a lot of retailers advertising in other ways other than newspapers. A lot of auto dealerships have direct links for consumers on the Internet through their own websites. They don't need to advertise taking out full page ads showing the cars they have for sale. Auto dealer advertising was a big revenue generator in the past. There are also other publications that publish car ads--most of which are free. And, of course, the online sites.

There have also been consolidations and bankruptcies of former retailers that has effected revenues. Ones that come to mind are Montgomery Ward, TG&Y, and The Jones Store. Walmart has put a lot of local smaller retailers out of business. For example, you don't have as many local electronics dealers that sell TVs and other appliances as in the past. Same with furniture stores. There are also fewer independent grocery and drug stores that published weekly sales flyers. Eckerd and Osco come to mind. Walmart now has 25 percent of the grocery sales in the USA. A lot of real estate advertising is also done online now.

Just the consolidation of Macy's/The Jones Store; Eckerd/Osco/CVS, and closing of independent grocery markets like Apple Markets, and Thriftway, reduced the number of merchant flyers weekly by at least five--probably more if you count the grocery stores.

Other retailers are doing the direct mail route delivering their ad flyers directly to homes without the newspaper.

The Star also has some good competition for business coverage from the Kansas City Business Journal.

TV has also hurt newspapers a great deal. Most people get their basic local news from TV stations, albeit the coverage is not as detailed as newspaper coverage might be.

For newspapers to survive, they need to provide in-depth coverage, which includes investigative reporting, and local reporting, not available elsewhere. I think it's harder to do that though when a newspaper is owned by a big chain like Gannett, Hearst, Knight-Ridder, or McClatchy (which owns The Star). Chains are all about efficient operations, and top-down management.

The thing I bemoan the most is the loss of investigative reporting--the type that used to expose a lot of fraud and corruption, or injustice. There is very little of that going on in local newspapers today, and it also extends to television news reporting as well.

Many of the biggest scandals and news stories in the past in our country were uncovered by independent newspapers doing investigative journalism. People forget that the fourth estate is one of the checks and balances in a democracy.

I would like to see The Star return to some kind of local ownership. I don't know if it should be a non-profit, or just owned by some party/parties that can subsidize it in some fashion. I don't know if newspapers will eventually have to move completely online to reduce their printing costs. '

Citizens don't realize the importance of good journalism to a democracy, and being well-informed. You need professionals to distill information in a way that anyone can understand it--even the least educated.

I have even wondered if a marriage of The Star with one of the local TV stations might be in order--to share reporting staff. It would provide the TV station the ability to provide more in-depth, investigative reporting.

And don't discount opinion columnists so fast. Some of them don't just offer opinions, but in their columns provide a lot of useful and necessary reportage and information. Facts, figures, etc., that they use in their opinions or arguments. You don't necessarily have to agree with what they say sometimes to still learn from information they use in their articles. Sometimes their opinions offer additional insight into other news stories that are published as direct reporting.

[KCMax]

Long-time sportswriter Randy Covitz is retiring.

I just began noticing the Star online version has a lot of "sponsored content" now that look like legit stories, but are really ads.

[FangKC]

Long-time sportswriter Randy Covitz is retiring.

I just began noticing the Star online version has a lot of "sponsored content" now that look like legit stories, but are really ads.

Ah, the death knell of a newspaper--sponsored ad articles.

The next step for The Star will be outsourcing all local reporting to people in a sweatshop in India.

I guess for our democracy to continue to function we will need all citizens to take journalism classes, and do investigative reporting. It will be a required part of citizenship, like being called for jury duty.