KC Confidential.com

Kansas City Star Columnist Mike Hendricks was slapped in front of a radio audience of millions yesterday and I think we need to revel in that fact.

This isn’t the first time that Hendricks has been publicly embarrassed. In fact, it might be something of a third strike. His public pay cut amid Star layoffs couldn’t have been nice and to make matters worse Hendricks immediately went on Facebook to whine about his bad news, contemplate a new job search and insult his readers. Hearne and I disagree on this one. Hearne argues that the pay cut was an effort to keep Mike at The Star whereas I think if a salary is docked it either translates into “go away” or reveals an employer doesn’t care what happens to the employee. Either way, ranting about it online is definitely a mistake. The Second strike against Mike Hendricks came when he was revealed to be an arrogant jerk during some e-mail job search.

And now he had to correct himself for foolishly using Myspace as a research tool.

So just how long will the Kansas City Star endure his constant screw-ups?
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Like it or not, life in Kansas City during The Great Recession has become an exercise in watching one longstanding institution after the next die a slow and painful death.

The Kansas City Star seems to be in a state of denial as their employees and advertisers disappear one by one and the most profitable method of delivery for their content (i.e. the dead tree newspaper) becomes more outdated everyday.

In much the same way Union Station is  symbol for Kansas City’s bad planning. To be fair, the restoration of Union Station preceded Kansas City’s efforts at Downtown revitalization involving the entertainment district and the new area by about a decade. So the story of Union Station’s failure post-renewal is actually a cautionary tale or maybe a preview of what the future holds for the latest series of hopes and dreams for Downtown.
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One of the last of a dying breed – well read Kansas City Star columnists – sports scribe Joe Posnanski more-or-less tiptoed out of the newspaper’s pages last summer.

“Posnanski to Sports Illustrated: Going…but not really leaving,” the Star’s headline hedged.

“The Star is part of our family, and editors and friends – one and the same – have kindly asked me to write for The Star regularly,” Posnanski wrote. “Most weeks, you’ll still find my column here.”

Au contraire – that was then…

Since making that pledge, Posnanski has written but 11 posts. Five in August, one in September, one in October, three in November, zero in December, oh and one last week. That’s a far cry from delivering the goods three to four times a week or better.

Still the newspaper insists on propagating the illusion that Posnanski is still in its fold. Continue reading

As much as I’d like to be a bastard, I’ve taken a special interest in the backstory surrounding one of the many people The Star recently laid off.

Julie Rehm was The Star’s letters editor and she’s been with the company since 1995. Now it seems she has been cast aside in yet another stupid decision that takes aim at the Star’s presence in the community and not the mostly useless middle-managers or blathering columnists. Yes, Mike Hendricks we’re all looking at you.

In any event, friends of Julie are disheartened by the choice to let her go and the seemingly endless string of bad decisions that have marked the downward spiral of The Kansas City Star. Worse still, the circumstances of the lady editor’s layoff are lamentable. Take a look: Continue reading

About an announcement by the Kansas City Star that “about a dozen” of its staffers were administered their last rites...

An email from publisher Mark Zieman went on to say that “…The worst days of this economic downturn are behind us.”

Hold it right there…

That may well be, but the implication that the newspaper can pack up all its cares and woes and march into a bright future is naive.

If the economy does rebound it will have a positive effect on the Star’s revenues along with everyone else in Depressionville hanging on for dear life.

But there’s more to the equation. Continue reading

The sad reality of more Kansas City Star layoffs unfolded today…

As is the company’s policy, no official Hit List was released. However insiders say the names known to date include my pal, letters editor Julie Rehm, another friend, imager John Ritchie, Ink Web producer and blogger Trevan McGee, A&E/Preview calendar coordinator dude Brian Potter and Joco bureau news staffer Jennifer Bhargava and reportedly a pressman.

“They’re kind of nibbling around the edges,” says one Star staffer. “No (major) reporters, no editors. There may be some other people but I haven’t heard of them yet.”

And as if there wasn’t enough confusion today, the Star’s server went down for several minutes around 3 p.m..

Stay tuned…

Look, I’m not a party to the planning of rumored cost cutting measures at Kansas City’s newspaper of record…

Not that I wouldn’t be happy to help.

However, last year when Star staffers were running amok with talk that a body count of 20 was imminent, voluntary layoffs and mandatory payless vacations were what transpired. And a previously rumored wave of layoffs was highlighted by columnists like Mike Hendricks and Steve Penn taking one-third pay cuts plus benefits hits.

Just prior to that, of course, I bought the farm.

But don’t underestimate the ability of the powers at 18th and Grand to get creative when the going gets ugly. Continue reading

A few more gripes and observations about Kansas City’s once great daily newspaper…

Why do we always get so many DUPLICATE advertising inserts? Does the Star’s four year-old, $200 million press facility – the one it put up for sale two years ago – need a tuneup already?

Or is the circulation down so far that the newspaper needs to double, triple, even quadruple up to get rid of the inserts advertisers have paid for?

I asked a business associate recently why he still takes the paper?

“For the obituaries,” he replied. ”It’s the best way to find if any of my clients need to be taken off the list.”

Note that the Star’s obits remain a great revenue source and one of the few sections of the paper that has yet to be affected by all the cutbacks and layoffs! Continue reading

I may actually be the next-to-last subscriber to THE KANSAS CITY STAR on my block…

Better (or worse) yet I also subscribe to USA TODAY and the Sunday NEW YORK TIMES. Guess I’m Old School.

Does all that entitle me to a little TLC by the newspapers?

Not in your dreams!

The ever shrinking STAR comes wrapped in plastic…mostly pure white, clear, or orange wrappings.

Ditto USA TODAY.

Therein lies the problem! Continue reading

For weeks the scuttlebutt at the Kansas City Star was that more layoffs were on the way, possibly in January…

And now that the time has come the talk in the newsroom is that the cuts will be involuntary and involve as many as seven journalists.

You may recall last summer that Star editor Mike Fannin came roaring back into the office in the middle of his vacation to work out the terms for what was thought by newsies would be a major round of involuntary cuts. Instead the Star implemented a voluntary separation program and dinged staffers with mandatory unpaid one week furloughs.

The plan: “..to put The Star in the best financial position possible going into 2010,” a memor from Star publisher Mark Zieman read at the time. Continue reading

Kansas City has the distinct honor of hosting the worst game in the NFL this weekend. They’re calling it “The Toilet Bowl.” It’s a shame that all of the clueless sports people are looking at this strictly from a football perspective. What this Chiefs Blackout really represents is one of the biggest taxpayer swindles in history given that Jackson County is collecting close to a billion dollars over the long term for a Stadium hosting games residents of the County can’t even watch. Also, $22 parking should be illegal.

Nevertheless, there has to be a silver-lining to this black cloud and I think the following list looks on the bright side and may provide ways to consider the historic blackout and horrible game as a benefit. Continue reading

The current sad state of the KU Football fan psyche in Lawrence Kansas?

Color it weather beaten. That after a seriously sick season in which the team went 1-7 in the Big 12, rumbled with members of KU’s top-ranked basketball team, then rode coach Mark Mangino out of town on a rail.

The $64 million question: will KU athletics honcho Lew Perkins continue now to insist that Joe-College.com’s “Our coach can eat your coach” T-shirts infringe on the school’s trademark?

I digress…

So how are locals who bleed Crimson & Blue feeling in the wake of the big fat mess that was this year’s football season?

“I’m telling you, they’re tired,” says one prominent Lawrence businessman who asked that his name be withheld. “They’re tired of the ugliness of it all. Sports is ugly, from Tiger Woods to Mark Mangino. People are tired of ugly – they’re just tired of it. There are no heroes. People are looking for heroes and there are none. It’s all about money and there’s no soul in money. And yet we all get caught up in it.” Continue reading

For sixteen years I wrote a column in the Kansas city Star - put my name on it and everything…

And guess what? Some people didn’t like what I had to say. Some got mad; some got over it, some didn’t. At times the column was controversial. Getting bagged on comes with that turf.

And every so often I’d get an anonymous letter or a nasty voicemail. Most reader communications arrived in email form and seldom were caustic. I took my share of hits on the Star’s letters page – not that many – but it wasn’t like they escaped my attention. Continue reading

Not so long ago the Kansas City Star was the area’s first and foremost source of important political, cultural and local news.

That was before the Internet.

That’s not to suggest that there isn’t hope for Kansas City’s biggest producer of birdcage liner featuring two day old news printed on it. The Star’s sports section contains some of the most widely read content produced by the “paper of record” and it’s supported by throngs of people online as well.

Too bad that Kansas City sports enthusiasts are some of the biggest dolts in town who require an endless stream of tax money to support their self-indulgent hobby. Don’t worry, I have examples which prove that sports is the last refuge of the bygone era of dead tree journalism. We’ll start with the current interracial adultery scandal and end with minor celebrities towering over more experienced local reporters. Check it:
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A while back the good folks at the KANSAS CITY STAR inserted a small card into my newspaper.

On it they announced big plans for their upcoming Thanksgiving issue. Something to the effect that “…the Kansas City Star has BIG PLANS for your Thanksgiving Day edition and holiday shopping.”

Big Plans?

We could look forward to the largest edition of the year. Not necessarily news, mind you but that the paper will be filled with sales inserts from all of my favorite retailers, etc.

So WHAT Plans?

Those were outlined in a much smaller print size at the bottom of the piece explaining that all STAR subscribers will automatically receive home delivery on Thanksgiving day at an additional cost of $1.25!

“November delivery will reflect this slight one-time additional cost,” it proclaimed.

As a longtime subscriber to the STAR, I’ve reluctantly come to accept today’s meager print editions.

Looks to me that one of the only real BRIGHT SIDES left are the obituaries— seemingly one of the few remaining profit centers for the newspaper.

I digress. Continue reading