Merry Christmas…
It’s been quite a year for KC Confidential. Lots of comings and goings – some planned, others not. But for the most part readers have stuck with us through good times and bad. We’re ending the year on a high note with readership up dramatically from where we were just last spring.
How much are we up?
More than double what we started the summer with, and up 90 percent the past three months and well over 300 percent in the last 30 days.
It’s not been easy.
While some of us – starting with me – may appear at times cavalier covering delicate topics like the three recent suicides, the dramatic fall of Kansas City’s top jazz club or the transgressions of a former colleague, trust me, it’s not that simple.
These are very difficult stories to wade into for the risk adverse, and some of that wading can get more than a little prickly at times – clumsy even. However, we’ve tried to be transparent, while providing an open window into the news gathering process. Instead of playing it safe and waiting for the smoke to clear. The key is following up on the news as it unfolds.
And there is no shortage of critical comments that stand in evidence, challenging some of those stories.
That said, we’ve cracked down to an extent on a handful of the more vulgar, libelous and/or ill conceived entries into KCC‘s comments section.
We’re not running a sewer here, nor a haven for very small brains attached to very big mouths.
I’d like to take a moment to salute two of KCC‘s more frequent targets, The Star and The Pitch.
Make no mistake, they’re both quite easy to bag on. The Star because it’s the dominant source of news in Kansas City and because all too often, it acts like it -they’re control freaks by nature.
In the case of the Pitch, mostly because it’s fighting a difficult battle for survival. Yeah, they’re a bit full of themselves at times as well – less so lately – like mindlessly churning out "best of" awards, while making no attempt whatsoever to try and make the winners – even the deserving ones – appear truly credibile. Which they easily could do.
Despite the doomsayers and it’s critics, the Star has a lot to offer and is going to be around for a long time – probably what passes for forever. The Pitch on the other hand could very well go the way of the Johnson County Sun, and that would be tragic.
Can you imagine living in a print media / pop culture media world lorded over by a publication as vapid as Ink?
Let’s not wish that on ourselves.
With luck, the Pitch‘s new owners in Nashville will survive long enough to weather this economy and the dwindling, younger readership. Do we really want to rely on a single corporate entity – the Star – for the lion’s share of our formal news and information?
As we move forward into a new year – KCC’s fourth – I’d like to thank all of you for hanging with us. With luck, we’ll have plenty of edgy, funny, entertaining – at times maybe even insightful – news and opinions to share with you in 2012.
That’s the plan, anyway. Thanks for sharing your time.
Merry Christmas Herne!
🙂
Cheers
Merry Christmas Hearne 🙂
God Bless Us, Everyone
Merry Happy
It takes gonads to put your name on a public forum everyday, whether on air or on line. This place is like a bar…you never know who’s going to walk in next. Thanks for the forum Hearne.
Yes, There is a Santa That No One May Have Known About…:)
Hey there, I will bet you remember me. I sold you a couple of cars back in the day. I am stopping by this Christmas Morning to share with you a story I just wrote up that might interest you. It tells the story of Twas the Night Before Christmas and how it was actually not written by Clement C Moore and in fact that Santa may indeed have cultural Native American roots.
Glad to see you making a fine niche in the blogging world. Come on over and look me up on Facebook where I am DBA Toad Hill Gardens. (The story I refer to above is in the top four posts this AM.) I am writing, hoping to get published and starting a B&B in an old Victorian treasure we found a few years ago.
Merry Christmas!
Hearne Great Work, This Website Was Needed
I didn’t realize what a blow losing FYI was to this town, til it was gone. FYI was Hearne’s section. He filled us in on daily gossip and who’s who, whats what, openings,closings, divorce that mattered, and who was up and done in KC…he was the city news in many ways. The Star moving him out was a HUGE error, huge.
This website proves that. By having me on, it gives readers someone that writes stories and advice, well they just aren’t in print anywhere else….HATERS SAY “THANK GOD” but hey it gives them purpose too. THE FIRST TIME I MASTERBATED story, that was rich, huh.
I can see this site being second only to the KC Star by next year or sooner. Hearne has a few more changes coming to the site, thats always good.
I saw the numbers online, there was more to brag about, like who were the top four read sites by writer…hmmmm…two were from KCCONFIDENTAL…..and Hearne was one of them. See you haters pushed us to the top.
Great work Hearne. I think there will be more fun, gossip,hate, love and everything else in 2012! Bye.
Dare Gift
The shot of the movie KC CONFIDENTIAL was a framed gift from Dare to Hearne and myself….cool huh. It was a movie, yes, Dare found it online and gifted the prints to us, nice.
Santa Doesn’t Cop Out On Dope
That’s how Martin Mull would greet us at Christmas, back in the days of Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture.
Whether this is news or views or infotainment, it seems to fill a spot in the what-passes-for-hearts among us. Perhaps the best description is a train wreck, and who among us doesn’t enjoy one?
PS don’t watch the movie, the poster was the best thing about it.
I read FYI every time it was in print….
I read KCC daily, now.
Thanks for making it available and thanks for cleaning up some of the posters who road the short bus to the local library to use a computer!
And for the thrid Glazer compliment in a week, thanks for saying something totally positive and not mentioning the 27 stars and starlettes within the post!! (Im sorry, couldnt pass that up)
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and keep it up. And whether you beleive in the 6lb 8oz Baby Jesus or not, do something for “the least of these” this season.
The City needs it, I appreciate it.
Thanks for the mention Paul!
Merry Christmas!
See you next week!
To KCCHearne
Merry Christmas Hearne and to your family as well hang in there trying to keep the train wreck rolling it’s about all one can do at times till better days come along.
Merry Christmas Jack and to your family as well we need to get together this year and share some good german food.
Merry Christmas Matthew and to your family looking forward to more good stories in 2012.
Merry Christmas Brandon and to your family glad to see a some fresh thoughts and good writing.
Merry Christmas Caitlin and to your family hang in there some of us do read what you write and enjoy it.
Merry Christmas Katie and to your family really enjoy your pictures here in the stories.
Merry Christmas Mark and to your family have enjoyed reading your insight on music in KC.
And last but not least to my good friend Kelly Urich, Merry Christmas as well to you, Hillary and the kids. Keep the air ways going and the only Kelly understands jokes rolling.
while harley rambles on….
in 27 column inches of tedious drivel… masquerading as a scribe, reliable sources tell me readership is up 37.9% as a result of my comments. King of Fling meets King of Cogent Thought and Relevance. Succinct points, well thought out that don’t require 20 minutes of attempting to connect disconnected thoughts followed by 20 minutes of head scratching as you mumble to yourself…what the HELL did that mean. It will only get more desperate, sad and meaningless from here.
Harley 2010-2011 epitaph; He tried, I think, I never could make it all the way to the end of the high falutin rambling prose, so I’m not really sure.
hey paul wilson…if you’re so smart
how come you ain’t got a pot to piss in? work serf…work til you drop….you and your
little co……..if you need $25 the pay day loan will cover it for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry…i never commented about your crappy writing…you are just full of wordy worthless
crap…..now get back to work for $11 an hour.
As we all now know, Harley’s real name is JoJo.
More specifically, Jo Jo Johnson.
He was nice enough to send me a Christmas Card that I would like to share.
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/marry-christmas-from-the-johnsons.jpg
Thanks Harley, you and your wife have a merry Christmas too!!
Ya know, I am so moved,
that I am gonna hit the gratitude journal early today!
🙂
What a guy!
harley, if you can rub 2 iq points together…
I’m not that hard to find. Not an $11 and hour serf, you clearly don’t know of which you speak. I’m really a pretty nice guy. So, find me on FB, email, Phone….and I’ll fill in the details. No need in you looking so stupid running around half cocked with faulty earnings info or job descriptions. I’ll help you clean it up.
That would be most kind of you
Hearne, stop complimenting Wilson!!!
This is Harley
i hacked his account just
to
prove I kould.
Block his account. People like
him
better
than me.
Why did my hacked comments
get deleted?
You didn’t hack anything. You merely signed in under a fake name. You call that “hacking”?