KC Confidential.com

For just a moment, I don’t want to simply celebrate the death of Kansas City’s biggest daily paper.

I simply want to demonstrate how local media is changing with a very clear cut example of creative people garnering huge numbers on the Internet without doing any of that pesky research and reporting that journalists love to tout.

Recently, a rather weird-ass local lady gave an inspired eye-witness account of a Kansas City gas station altercation. She was just one of many weird people on the local news. Subsequently, popular Internet act The Gregory Brothers got a hold of the clip, turned it into a song and garnered more than a million views and counting.

Let me explain why this is important:
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As expected, the latest round of Kansas City Star layoffs and cutbacks unfolded today…

The known hit list: LaJean Keene in FYI, copy editor Deb Bauer, copy editor and Inkster Liz Garcia, copy editor (and hotdog connoisseur) Gary Marx on the copy desk, reporter Sarah Shepherd, neighborhood news editor Julie Adam, reporter Meredith Rodriguez, special sections artist Andrea Allen and three pressmen.

Actually Rodriguez resigned recently to relocate to China with her family and reportedly was (generously) given the severance pack.

While those on the Hit List were notified early on, a tap dance email from publisher Mark Zieman around noon told the basic tale; a more dozen plank-walkers and (as reported here) another week’s vacation without pay, to be taken by year’s end. Continue reading

More cutbacks, layoffs and/or unpaid furloughs are expected at the Kansas City Star...

Possibly this week. Since the layoffs tend to come at the beginning of pay periods, one of which starts this week. The Labor Day holiday threw things off by at least one day, since Monday was a holiday.

KC Confidential first reported rumors of more layoffs last month on August 10.

Interestingly, embattled Star editor Mike Fannin was MIA all last week. Continue reading

To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, The Sun also sets…

And in the case of the Sun Newspapers, it looks like it’s about to set on a an unspecified number folks living in the wilds of Johnson County, Kansas. Because after 60 years of distributing its weekly newspapers free-of-charge (if you don’t count the panhandling platoons of school kids the Sun used to enlist for door-to–door guilt tripping), some Sun readers are now being asked to pay up or the Sun says it will shut up.

“Dear Sun Reader,” begins an August 20th letter from co-publisher Steve Rose, son of Sun founder, Stan Rose. “Due to significant proposed postage increases for newspapers, we regret we must ask you to make a choice. You can continue to receive The Johnson County Sun for $19.95 per year (38 cents per issue) or $24.95 for two years (24 cents per issue).”

Severe consequences await Sun spotters who opt not to ante up. Continue reading

As reported here three weeks back, more layoffs appear to be on the way at the Kansas City Star…

As noted earlier, newspaperlayoffs.com reported August 5 that sister Star newspaper the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram had just laid off 15 newsroom staffers.

And sources say McClatchy Company-owned papers are given quarterly targets that if they are not met, require that layoffs and/or cutbacks be implemented. Continue reading

I almost lost my mind watching my Kansas City Chiefs lose to the Philadelphia Eagles in Friday’s preseason home opener at Arrowhead Stadium.

But it wasn’t the game that threatened my hold on sanity. It was the totally distracting, please-make-it-stop advertising on the high-tech HD ribbon board extending around the entire inner circle of Arrowhead.

The board’s video overkill promoted future football games, the Chiefs Cheerleaders calendar, soft drinks, beer and so much more. It qualified as the most exasperating thing I’ve encountered in 20 years as a Chiefs season ticket holder. And that’s pretty exasperating.

To say that the board – let’s just call it the “ad ribbon” – constantly sidetracked my focus from the game on the field only begins to communicate the inappropriate pummeling taken by my attention span. Continue reading

From the avalanche of criticism that greeted last week’s announcement about Polsinelli Shughart’s plan to build a high-rise on the Plaza, one published comment struck a chord with a lot of people.

A woman said the law firm’s leaders would have been “heroes” if they had committed the firm to resurrecting the West Edge project on the southwest part of the Plaza.

Well, Polsinelli Shughart bypassed its chance to be the hero, and in the process it may have tarnished its reputation forever.

On Thursday, however, a new prospective hero stepped forward. And it’s none other than AMC Entertainment, one of the nation’s largest movie theater companies. Continue reading

I hadn’t planned on watching the PRIMETIME EMMYS this Sunday night.

But on second thought I think I will.

Why?

Because Conan O’Brien is nominated in the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series catagory for his short-lived stint as NBC’s TONIGHT SHOW host.

And should he win, his acceptance speech could be one for the books! Continue reading

Sad state of affairs of late at the Kansas City Star…

Then again, who isn’t having problems? These are difficult days for many.

Let’s start, for example, with the Blackout Boyz aka the Kansas City Chiefs.

Hard to remember a time when this many core Chiefs football fans were this down on the team this early. Hope usually springs somewhat eternal. And say what you will about exiled Big Chief Carl Peterson, he had a way at least of fanning Kansas City’s flames, keeping hope alive and putting butts in seats at Arrowhead Stadium.

Today we live with a growing fear of the return of the Blackout Age.

That said, if the Chiefs live down to their expectations, there may not be much of an appetite to witness their weekly, weakly self destruction.

One indicator that tough times lie ahead for the team at the ticket window: Continue reading

For the record, I think the most damning allegation against Kansas City Star Editor Mike Fannin was a sordid tale of non-sexual man kissing that not even the media allowed Jason Whitlock to complete.

For this social faux pas noted by Whitlock, I’m pretty sure the only “punishment” required is a weekend pass to one of those “Iron John” seminars where middle-aged men partake in primal scream therapy and complain about their fathers.

However, among newsies at the Star there are a great many complaints about more serious stuff starting with a list of Fannin’s wrongs on KCC that directly call for a judgment from Kansas City Star Publisher Mark Zieman.

Unfortunately, Zieman doesn’t exactly have the moral high ground when it comes to personnel issues. Let’s examine why, shall we?
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Turns out there’s more dirt and gravel in those dump trucks backing up to what’s known as Mike Fannin’s background.

The spotlight on Fannin, editor of the Kansas City Star the last two years, has become blazingly bright since former sports columnist Jason Whitlock went on local TV and radio last week and rocked Fannin’s world. Fannin had been the Star’s sports editor and later the managing editor of sports and features.

KC Confidential was able to verify the latest revelation about Fannin, which arrived earlier today in the form of a tip by an anonymous commenter. (We didn’t post it.) It read: “Is anyone going to run down Fannin’s assault charge from TX 15 years ago?”

KCC turned to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime records service and found that the tipster was right on the money.

Here are the facts: Continue reading

I’ve been whacking away at the KC Star the last several days for various journalistic offenses, including running an untimely letters to the editor page and failing to include in a front-page story the governmental-approval process needed for construction of a controversial office tower on the Plaza.

But today I’m taking off my straw hat (see “About Me” page) to you, KC Star.

A group of editors, reporters, photographers and graphic artists has put together what – halfway into it, at least – is an amazing series on the Kansas City School District.

The six-part series, which began Sunday, is beautifully written, carefully and thoroughly reported, and strikingly presented, with great photos, graphics and sidebars. Continue reading