This just in…
The psychological, post-layoffs state of mind among staffers at the Kansas City Star: disheartened.
"Everybody is waiting for their turn," says one. "We’re all bummed and it’s like, ‘When is it my turn?’ You look around everywhere and it’s so empty. There’s nobody around anymore. It’s the atmosphere. You come in every day with things looking like a morgue.
"The newroom looks like it’s three-fourths empty. It’s depressing. It looks horrible. So they’re going to move sports downstairs. But to me it’d make more sense to move FYI down there because they work normal business hours and most of the sports people don’t come in unitl the afternoon.
"And they’re putting in all new tile floors down in advertising and cleaning and refurbishing everything. But if we don’t have any money how can they afford to do that. It just doesn’t make sense."
NYT Folds
This is cute and perhaps foretells the future of the KC Star
http://www.slate.com/features/www.thefinaledition.com/index.html
Curb Appeal
Damn right they’re sprucing things up. That’s what you do when you’re gettin’ ready to sell. Either that or the Star is doing barter for ads instead of cash. That would make SENSE!
I don’t blame ya, if I had the chance to trash an ex
employer who pissed me off in print, I would.
But Hearne, just change your last name to schadenfreude and be done with it.
Heh, heh…
Let you in on a little secret: I ain’t pissed. Guess again.
Really?
.
Truly.
Do I miss being there, the job, the paycheck? Of course. But I know they did what they had to do. And they wanted me back but couldn’t hire me for a year. I had a choice to make. Cover the downward spiral or sit out writing about the Star for all of 2009 and freelance the column in 2010.
By covering its difficulties I knew I would be burning that bridge.
But I have no hard feelings. Still have lots of friends there. Sure, some people did not like me or were jealous of my paycheck and/or the column and thought I never should have been hired.That comes with the turf.
You can read their anonymous sour grapes in comments land. But say what they will, the Star would not have paid me six figures plus expenses and kept me in place with that column for 16 years if they didn’t think I was doing a good job.
It was a good run. Look at the mess they’re in today. Why would I begrudge them that?
cough (bullshit), cough, cough.
FUCK YOU CLIFFORD
Fuck you with a dart Clifford .Shut the fuck up. Hearne does a good job here, he replies to you, and you respond with purile BS? that is fukcing is stupid…. shut the fuck up.
OK, Hearbe.
cue it up – “blah blah-purile-blah”
and, of course, you respond with purile BS…. dude, just shut the fuck up. Every once in a while, try putting a filter between your brain and your keyboard.
Think what you will, Cliffy
I laid it out for you.
ok.
.
So, you purposely burned the bridge so you could cover the downward spiral? Pretty good evidence of your bitterness and obsession. We all wait on pins and needles for the latest article here on Star layoffs. Better information is available at Landsberg’s site if anybody is truly interested in employment casualties at the Star.
And Hearbe Fan/Hearne Fan … since you’re going to use the word multiple times you should probably spell it correctly. It’s puerile. But why not just say childish or immature so that even harley will know what you’re talking about. And yes, my post was puerile.
Thanks, Lee …
RE: NYT Folds … now THAT was funny …
Hearne; haters out in full force on this one …
I enjoy your posts on the Star’s demise .. and I DON’T have a dog in this fight …anything that keeps you from posting about the Fart 500 is good
Damn! I almost had you. But you know I have to review the new Fiat. May surprise you.
Nice spin, but wrong again.
I had a tough choice to make; sit out an entire year and not write about the sweeping, historic changes afoot at the local newspaper I’d spent the last 16 years writing for. Not covering the most significant, local media news in the last 20 years. Despite all of the sources, inside knowledge and perspective I’d gleaned over a lifetime in Kansas City.
First as a reader, then as a businessman working with the Star’s sales and editorial staff, later as a concert promoter seeking publicity for artists and performances, then as a media/news critic running the Pitch, and finally as a deep insider working at 18th and Grand while covering a wide array of news and topics.
It may not have been the smartest career choice I’ve ever made, but it certainly wasn’t based on bitterness.
Hearne Doesn’t Need The Job
sorry guys, but as much as he misses the Star, he doesn’t need them. Hearne is a well healed dude. He also wrote for every existing paper and mag in KC after he left including the Sun and The Hills, he still has colums in several smaller papers like Parkville and so on, he’s even printed some of my stories in them, yes they pay him. Hearne more than anyone has in years, is on the inside with so many names and events this city has and will have. He’s till the guy. Yes he is older now, but nobody has stepped up to the plate to do what he did and still does. Doesn’t matter if you like him or not. I have never met a guy more on top of things in this town then Hearne. He never stops. Simply look at the scoops he has on this site with concerts, people, and new places coming and going, the guy has connects.
Pass To Harley
Not that this is too easy but more out of respect I have to let harley have the first rip on Glazers post. Try to stay under 5000 words harley.
Cliffy is better than Glazer
wtf? I do everything I can to avoid reading that fking glazer…but it seems that douche feels obligated to sticks his nose everywhere….
dude(doucher) we dont need you telling us about Hearne… we know about hearne…… fk I would rather read clifford’s pruile (I will spell it anyway I want to, it is my world) ( 😉 ) Cliffords’s pruile crap than anything that cop loving blowhard glazer has to say about anything….