Hearne: Good Old Daze Star Flashback

Posted on December 6, 2023 by admin
For the record, this is not me ragging on the Kansas City Star – yet again…
It’s comment habitué Rainbow Man doing the honors, plus my two cents.
Check it.
“I just miss the way The Star was,” Rainbow begins. “It always had a bit of a left slant, but that was kind of a standard in print when it came to news in this city of about 2 million. You could depend on good reporting, local angled columns, and somewhat careful editorializing.”
Jim Hale and Art Brisbane would be proud.
“The mismanagement of The Star started about 20-22 years ago,” RBM continues. “Bad timing, because the digital paper era was coming and The Star was caught up in remediating chaos.”
Remediating?

Reducing or removing pollutants and harmful chemicals?

They’ve already gotten rid of the once ubiquitous spittoons and banned smoking. I get it.
“They showed no strategy to adapt” Rainbow continues. “All of their focus went to their Editorial Board. Actually, my politics are probably in-line on a lot of things with Toriano Porter, but man, I cannot stand his editorials. They are so self righteous and full of unearned journalistic tenure.”
No writer’s above criticism, but maybe someone should tell Toriano, the more folks you piss off, the better the readership / paycheck equation. Take it from me and Jason Whitlock, you don’t make the big bucks zone by being politically correct. Not anymore.
“Everyone sees through The Star,”  Rainbow Man concludes. “It still has some brand power, but McClatchy is probably afraid to sell it.”
I dunno, if McClatchy was afraid of anything, they’d never have bought it in then first place.
At this point, they’re hanging on for dear life – even though they’re already broke. Waiting to see if anybody can figure out how to make “daily newspapers” profitable. Kinda like audiophiles waiting for vinyl records to rise to the top again.
Already happened? Noop, just a tres quaint fad.
Vinyl records jumped 10-fold last year to 41 million sold since its 2006 comeback. That’s still a far cry from the 350 million a year sold in the late 1970s.
So even if newspapers rally, chances are they’ll be churning red ink until the Stone Age returns, post World War III.
The best thing they have going now is nobody else outside “social media” has figured out how to cash in by providing reasonably unbiased local and area news.
Ah, but the beat goes on…
http://www.mb-kc.com/
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One Response to Hearne: Good Old Daze Star Flashback

  1. paulwilsonkc says:
    December 12, 2023 at 11:57 am

    “For the record, this is not me ragging on the Kansas City Star – yet again…but it’s about me ragging about The Star, again…”

    Reply

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