Lots of loose ends after two weeks of new Web site chaos, road tripping and then some…
Let’s tie a few up.
Understatement-itus: As usual, the Kansas City Star provides a devil’s playground of loose ends and curious reportage. Starting with a brilliant headline directed towards the KU Football Team shortly after it suffered through a series of shellackings: "KU in need of some changes." In the words of MasterCard. priceless!
jimmycsays but… Deep thinking journalist emeritus Jim Fitzpatrick weighed in Tuesday on effective survival startegies for daily newspapers with a tip of the hat to the the Star for a trio of recent front page stories that were of "sweeping significance" to the community, reported completely, told compellingly, pursued relentlessly and played effectively.
Just one problem…
Three unusually heavily reported stories over a two week span do not a daily must-read make. One of them involved a four decade-old story about an all but forgotten local politician and civil rights leader. If daily newspapers want to vie for younger, let alone future readers, they’ll need to provide a lot more compelling local content from the front page to the back.
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Size does matter: Unless of course you’re merely looking to amp up some sensationalism like Sunday’s A&E section front pager about the coming-soon Performing Arts Center. "Think bigger. Better. Pricier," it begins. Hold it, bigger?
It’s certainly not bigger than Kansas City’s fabulously refurbished Music Hall downtown which has hosted some of the very shows likely to find their way into the PAC’s tres cool new downtown digs. But because of funding cuts the top capacity of the new Kauffman Center will be 1,800 seats. That compares to a capacity of 2,363 at the Music Hall, making it is more than 30 percent greater than The Little K.
Speaking of The K: Outside of insiders like former KC Royals exec Mike Herman, myself and a dude by the name of Jason Whitlock (remember him?), not many folks know or recall that it was none other than Greg Hall who coined the now ubiquitous term, The K for Kauffman Stadium. True story.
So slide over Greg, may I please now lay claim to "The Little K" or have you minted that one too?
Well, I Like Greg’s Sports Columns Here,
but he’s the idiot who thought of "The K," huh? I’ve always wanted to know who to blame for that slight to the memory of the great Ewing Kauffman. The place is called "Kauffman Stadium" for a reason – respect.
The K…who cares?
Greg can have that one, just as long as you give me credit for the term, "self-gloss".