Just as everything green is about to die…
New York hanging by a thread, the fate of the presidency suspended precipitously and KC Confidential about to get a serious facelift. Hope is fading and more than five months have passed since last Jimmy C wagged his journalistic finger at evildoers.
Well, guess what? He’s back!
Ladies and gentlemen, the blogger known as Jim Fitzpatrick – late of both the Star and KC Confidential – is blogging like a fool once again at jimmycsays.com.
It was May 11th of this year that Young Frankenstein – I mean, Fitzpatrick – last stuck his journalistic harpoon in the Washington Post, dinging the newspaper for its failing circulation and bluster.
So what brought Sir Fitz back, you may ask?
The election? Fitzpatrick is a known political geek. Nah. It was his beloved Star, that he reads in broadsheet form each day, firmly scolding it with one hand, gently stroking it with the other.
Which was it to be yesterday? Ah, the former, of course.
Fitzpatrick tore into the Star for its 8 percent drop in circulation, first reported by Alex Parker‘s mediaKC on Tuesday.
“To me, that is a breathtaking loss, even in these days of a relentless circulation retreat for major metropolitan dailies throughout the country,” Fitzpatrick sputtered as he shook back to life. “It has to be terrible news for publisher Mi-Ai Parrish, who told readers in a recent column that The Star would implement in December charges for online access to The Star’s content.”
Not that Fitzpatrick is an expert on advertising sales and marketing but still…
“Not only is that an elevator-crashing percentage – 8 percent – but the paper also now appears to have lost any chance to stay at or above the 300,000 mark for Sunday,” he continued, adding in bold and italics, “That 8 percent decrease will either force The Star to drop its advertising rates or almost certainly will drive some advertisers away.”
The Star is wading in some seriously deep doo-doo, Fitzpatrick says, which not only accounts for September’s surprise layoffs but may bode badly for future cutbacks and furloughs at 18th and Grand.
So cross your fingers, ladies and gents, that the coming week’s election will spark optimism and hasten this sleepy economic recovery that’s loping along so timidly.
As for Jimmy C, let’s give him a warm welcome back and hope that he doesn’t slip in the shower while celebrating!
Lay off most of your talent, reduce actual writing content by almost half, how do you expect anything else but reduced readership numbers? The damn thing is nothing but AP articles and ads now!!!!
I hope the Star will run a full section on Romney’s inauguration just like they did for Obama. Or will Obama’s be the first and last? Thanks to the Wall Street Journal, KCConfidential and Tony, I let my Star subscription lapse and I have never missed it.
First Moreman elected should warrant a special section seeing that Soetero wasn’t the first black president.
FYI-Mormon.
Birthers. Stupidity has no bounds. Sheeeze.
MOREMANs will visit planet Kolob when Lord Zenu returns.
jimmy…won’t be any romney inauguration in 2013…
the election is over…have you heard that?
obama getting the majority of electoral votes…
maybe in your world its a close race but not according to
the experts…
can’t wait to see pie on the face of rush…shawn and
billy o.
nice try…………………..
Yesterday’s memo: EMPLOYEES, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! YOU COULD WIN!
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All:
Earlier this year, The McClatchy Company announced that we would take the next step in delivering cutting-edge methods of news access to our readers across all platforms and devices through a digital subscription model.
Effective Dec. 5, The Kansas City Star will join 15 other McClatchy newspapers in offering a subscription model that provides unlimited access to our suite of digital products – including kansascity.com – on your computer, smart phone and electronic replica edition, as well as access to digital back issues and archive databases. This industry-standard strategy provides our home-delivery subscribers access as part of one inclusive print and digital subscription package. We also have created a digital-only package that provides access to all these platforms for readers who are unable to receive the printed Kansas City Star.
We are not the first to build a modern digital subscription strategy. More than 300 newspapers already have subscriptions for online content. Earlier this year, Gannett Company Inc. (80 newspapers) and Lee Enterprises Inc. (52 newspapers) announced plans to establish pay walls or paid-access models for digital content.
In the coming weeks, you will see ads promoting “Star+” – so named because it allows customers unlimited access to our content any time, anywhere and in any format.
All current employee seven-day subscribers will get full digital access at the current rate they are paying. We will not increase employee rates for full access. Also, all employees will have full access to our site at work, but non-subscribers will be subject to the same paywall restrictions as the general public when they are not at work.
The employee subscription rate is a great deal, and with this change, it is even more so. If you’re interested in becoming a seven-day subscriber, please fill out the attached subscription form and turn it into Human Resources on the first floor of the Grand Building. They’ll take care of the rest.
I will be doing a drawing for a $100 Target gift card from among all Kansas City Star employees who have employee subscriptions as of Nov. 15.
As with anything new, your friends and neighbors may have questions. Please take a few minutes to read the attached Q&A so you will be prepared to talk about this change.
As always, thanks for all you are doing to make a difference here every day.
If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your supervisor, or me.
Thank you,
Mi-Ai
now the Star is engaging in illegal activities, running a lottery. prize, chance and consideration make a lottery, isn’t that an ethical problem? it also is a crime.
Hey, long time no see, Kansas Karl.
Guess I’ve been falling down in my radio reporting, huh?
That was a funny one from “memos from the front”. Well done. At any rate, it was nice to see a new post from Jimmy C, even if it was inspired by the sad occasion of a sharp decline in The Star’s circulation numbers. I was out the other morning helping my friend with his paper route and he said that given a choice between paying for cable or paying for The Star, most people will drop the paper in order to keep watching the Idiot Box. How sad! He’s seen his numbers go down, he reported. I don’t know what the answer is, but a Kansas City with a diminished Star is definitely to be preferred over a Kansas City without The Star. If the paper up and dies one day is the WSJ going to come in and start doing a special KC edition? Doubt it.