Hearne: Star ‘Slashes’ Business News Coverage

Maybe I’ve been reading too much Rich Steele…

Which undoubtedly accounts for my use of the word “slash” in reference to the Kansas City Star’s after-the-fact announcement today that its Kansas City Star Business Weekly is no more.

Just like that the newspaper lopped off the head of its Kansas City Business Journal killer with nary a comment. No solemn words about how long the publication has been in existence or tributes to past accomplishments and scoops.

Nada.

Just a tiny yellow box in the lower left front page above a “Dealsaver” ad hyping half off offer at Le Peep restaurant.

Ah, the indignity.

And to think, a couple years back the Star had the audacity to tack a buck or two surcharge on one of the Business Weekly issues at the same time they decided to charge subscribers extra for their Thanksgiving ads.

However today, instead of a once plump pull out, readers of the print edition Star get but a one page business header, a couple story jumps, some filler wire news and a few paid ads. It’s come to that.

So since the Star won’t mourn the loss of one of it’s own, I’ll do the honors.

Once upon a time I was a stockbroker here in town.

And back in those dark, murky days a challenger to the Star business section arose. It was called  the Kansas City Business Journal and it gave the local newspaper of record fits.

The Business Journal fielded a team of mostly young, unseasoned, unsung reporters and columnists who’s sole mission in life seemed to be to scoop the ever loving daylights out of the Star’s sleepy business section.

And scoop they did.

They combed local court records back when that was a lot harder to do and dug up sexy stories right, left and sideways that made for page turning reading. Stories that Star reporters missed or passed over because they were too controversial. And what the heck? – If a few trees fell in the forest and nobody knew, no harm, no foul, right?

Wrong!

The chipper, young Business Journal breathed new life into the coverage of local businesses and businessmen and fast became the talk of the town.

Sure they played fast and loose with the facts and the reporting at times, but they covered their asses just enough to avoid being sued out of existence. Business news became fun and sexy and there was an almost wild west aura about it.

I’ll tell you what it was like.

It was like the American Revolutionary War.

With the Kansas City Star reporters cast as Red Coats and the young BJ staffers playing Colonials – hiding behind fences and trees and picking off the newspaper reporters as they marched in wooden formation.

These were heady days for Kansas City journalism.

I was working PR for a local brokerage firm and talked at length with reporters on both sides of this war. To reporters like the BJ’s Lola Butcher and Dan Margolies and the Star’s Joyce Smith (remember her?)

Oh, and a mild-mannered Star business dude named Greg Hack who doubled as a music reviewer of alternative rock bands, a number of which I was booking at clubs around Lawrence and KC at the time.

Let’s cut to the chase…

The Business Journal made such vast inroads that the editors at the Star arose from their sleepwalking and began to worry quite seriously about the brash, young intruders. The BJ may have had a circulation smaller than my IQ, but the it was the talk of the town.

By the time I joined the Star in 1992 – and for several years after that – there was heck to pay for business reporters that got scooped by the BJ.

That was then.

Lola Butcher

In more recent years the Business Journal seemed to run out of gas and local businesses learned that if they fed their news scoops to Star reporters like Kevin Collison, they would be rewarded with front page blowjob coverage, giving little to no scrutiny to their claims.

And thus for the past dozen or so years there was little to no real competition in the reporting of local business news and the sexy stories that had helped vault the BJ into the limelight became far fewer and farther between.

Make no mistake though, the Star’s Business Weekly on Tuesdays were a direct response to the accomplishments the local weekly had attained.

Just as the Star’s Preview was a response to the growth of the upstart Pitch.

In fact, early editions of Preview were shlepped around town to record stores and the like, which scared the pants off of those early Pitch editors that I worked with.

Happily, Preview retreated quickly into the newspaper, eventually necessitating the introduction of INK seven years ago at probably the worst time imaginable for print publications, as across the board they began their nosedives.

I digress…

Art Brisbane

Consolidating first the Metro or Local news into what’s called the “A Section” was a sign of the difficult times. And although entertainment far exceeds the readership interest in business news, it may be just a matter of time until FYI merges with Sports Daily. And then until the entire newspaper becomes but a single section – possibly in tabloid form as former editor Art Brisbane suggested to me a handful of years back.

The fact that the Star has yet to hire a replacement for big gun Collison – even though it’s interviewed a number of qualified candidates – does not bode well for readers.

All of that said, at some point in time – in probably the next five years or less – the Baby Boom generation of reporters and columnists at 18th and Grand will undoubtedly give way to younger, more progressive writers and reporters. The newsroom staff will continue to shrink, but harder working, more energized reporters will put out a product far superior to that which exists today.

The $64 million question: Will they be able to make it work financially with  a primarily online product?

Therein lies the problem.

Because even by generating subscriber revenue by charging online readers, nobody yet has figured out a way to make it work for advertisers. Not for the number of them that fills the pages of the print edition today where the lion’s share of the profits come from.

So bid your adieus to the Kansas City Star Business Weekly.

It never came close to matching what the Business Journal did at its peak, but it did have its moments – however few.