Posted on 11/14/2008 11:18:06 AM PST by Zakeet
This campaign season The Kansas City Star passed on a parcel of the nation's most eye-popping stories. Incredibly, at least five of those stories flared up in the Star's home state, Missouri. As the reader might guess, all five stories reflected unfavorably on Democratic candidates.
This is nothing new. What is new is that by censoring such stories the Star has continued to show its indifference to the majority of its potential customers even as it struggles to stay afloat. This kind of commercial death wish may be a first not just in the annals of journalism, but in the annals of American business.
Worse, the Star is hardly alone. A score or more mid-size, mid-American newspapers are doing much the same thing, many of them owned by the Star's publisher, McClatchy.
For the record, Kansas City serves as the de facto capital of an agri-business region with a center-right disposition. In 2008, an obvious off year for Republicans, 96 of the 100 counties closest to Kansas City gave the majority of their votes to McCain-Palin. This included the three most affluent counties in the immediate five-country metro.
Yet, the Star historically has created a product, both in its reporting and in its editorial, much better suited to the residents of say, Boston or Seattle, than of than of Kansas City.
In my role as the executive editor of the region's business magazine, I occasionally point out the Star's counterintuitive marketing strategy. The Star honchos have felt obliged to respond to my queries, always patronizingly. "Bias?" they respond. "What bias? We get criticism from both right and left."
Up until recently, very recently, the honchos would add that the Star was doing quite well, thank you, and didn't really need my advice. The following came from the then-publisher by way of email in November 2005.
Just so you know, our readership/audience has never been greater. . . . The combined reach of our Website and newspaper is at an all time high and growing nicely. I'm certainly open to your ideas on how to improve the newspaper. We're always open to new suggestions. Please send them in, if you care to share them.
I did not bother. The publisher was clearly not open to any suggestions that would disturb the status quo. He should have been. Since the time of that email, McClatchy has seen its share prices drop from the $50 to the $3 range.
A recent posting on bottomline.com sums up the Star's precarious state of affairs. "More cuts in Kansas City were announced today in the newsroom," writes an insider. "Most Star reporters have been carefully selecting what stories they cover for fear of irritating editors and being next on the list. Forget journalism, this is survival."
Analysts have given McClatchy more credit for cutting expenses than the Star's staff has. Still, as The Wall Street Journal reports, "Unless revenue begins to improve . . . it is unclear how much more the company can do."
The thing that amazes me about newspapers is that even the small town papers in conservative areas have the same leftist editorial bias as the NYT. The editors seem to think that being a brainwashed commie RAT is the only editorial stance they can take.
It is now trading at exactly 10% of what it was 1 year ago.
An encouraging trend.
The on going tri state water war between FLA, GA and Ala has raged for 25 years and is now in federal court. Obama in west Fla during the campaign jumped into the middle of it pandering for electoral votes and said he thought FLA’s poistion should be upheld by the courts, knowing full well he was not going to win in GA or ALA. Did the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report his remarks? Not one word even though it is full of stories about our water difficulties.
Conservative mantra - 'We don't need your stinking newspaper'
Either way....newspapers are screwed....
Thing that got me was “we noticed” .... like they were the newspaper GESTAPO .... rather than just saying “would you like to receive “ .... it was the tone ....
We get our paper free (Fall Church News Press). Run by a liberal gay dude, do not read it.
Nice to burn in the wood stove, though. Free fuel.
McClatchy paper in Anchorage is the same as The Star. Totally out of touch with the community. Suffering the same fate with staff layoffs, cutbacks and loss of readership too.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, what does that make McClatchy? Can a corporation be labeled insane?
“News”papers treat their readers like mushrooms; Feed ‘em sh!t and keep ‘em in the dark.
Related thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2132033/posts
Plenty Of Ratings Woe This Season For (TV) Broadcasters (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)
Similar here. The caller is working off a script, and is just a hired hand in some marketing firm. Rather than give them an honest piece of my mind (which is something they don't deserve), I lied to them about getting the paper, and about enjoying it. It got me off their call list, and my life is slightly more peaceful as a result.
I'm planning to do the same thing with the GOP. Tell them I adore their policies, but never donate money, time, or votes. Eventually, they'll stop annoying me with their lies too.
If I’m in a mellow mood I’ll chat with them and finally say “no thanks” but normally I just let my answering machine screen my calls ... one article I read said to just keep saying “yes” to everything ... but then, they’re people just trying to do a job ....
They haven’t called me back to see if I’d subscribe since I told them I wouldn’t wipe my 4$$ with their communist rag.
The good news for the mentally ill still owning McClatchy/MNI is that the stock is still out performing Fannie Mae/FNM, and Freddie Mac/FRE.
The bad news is MNI has lost over 80% of its value in one year.
These stocks are another prime example of Grampa Dave's cornerstone re owning stocks: Never own a stock controlled by Liberals.
“McClatchy paper in Anchorage is the same as The Star. Totally out of touch with the community. Suffering the same fate with staff layoffs, cutbacks and loss of readership too.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, what does that make McClatchy? Can a corporation be labeled insane?”
If it can, McClatchy would be at or near the top of the list. The Bee newspapers here in CA are McCommie papers as well. Might as well be titled Pravda West.
Great post. I suggest everyone check out the writer’s website. Jack Cashill has done some amazing work researching the Clinton years - Ron Brown’s death, TWA 800, Oklahoma City, etc. Worth a read. He also penned a little known novel about a political right-wing revolt during a fictional Gore presidency (2006: The Chatauqua Rising.)
Good stuff.
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