Things are starting to look pretty ugly at Kansas City’s newspaper of record…
Uglier than usual…so what else is new, right?
Yet amidst further layoffs and a barrage of gloom and doom reports about the Kansas City Star, the newspaper choked out a puff piece of sorts recently announcing that editor Mike Fannin had been promoted to its top spot as president.
Something about Fannin being “among the most talented editors in America today,” leading one of the nation’s “greatest newsrooms” and now “able to expand his influence both at The Star and also with the community that he loves.”
Talk about double talk…the community that he loves? Try the paycheck that he loves
Missing in action on pretty much any of the reporting about Fannin outside of KC Confidential is the fact that he’s a two-time convicted felon with twin DUI convictions and an unseemly affair with a married subordinate in the sports department when he was sports editor. Much of that, immediately prior to his climbing the corporate ladder in the wake of the high profile departures of – shall we say – far more qualified Star honchos Art Brisbane and Mark Zieman (less so the latter).
Speaking of which…
On October 14th the Star’s parent company McClatchy released a filing with the New York Stock Exchange stating that Zieman, its vice president of operations had recently, informed the company that he will leave at the end of 2019.
“Mr. Zieman’s role will not be replaced,” it concluded.
Mark Zieman & the Watson’s Girl
And what a role it was, Zieman cashed like eight years of million dollar-plus paychecks, placed Fanin at the news helm of of the Star to oversee abandoning the tenets of conventional news and opinion reporting and embarked upon a course of what might loosely be referred to as a contemporized form of “yellow journalism.”
And now, as disclosed in another McClatchy filing, the company has a “reported stockholders’ equity deficit of $372.5 million as of June 30, 2019 with net losses in each of the four most recent fiscal years ended December 30, 2018.”
Net result: McClatchy could be delisted by the NYSE as early as next month.
“If the Company’s plan is not submitted on a timely basis or is not accepted, NYSE American will initiate delisting proceedings,” the filing states.
Add to all the above that McClatchy’s chief financial officer R. Elaine Lintecum,has told the company that she is bailing as of end of June 2020.
Not exactly an encouraging sign when the person in charge of the numbers decides to flee the scene.
The bottom line: It’s not pretty, because unless somebody at the top figures something out that nobody for the past dozen years has been able to figure, things could get ugly fast.
My buddy Jim Fitzpatrick, a former Star reporter and editor -who goes by JimmyC – went out on a limb and wrote, “I’m sure (Zieman will) walk away with a lavish severance package. His total compensation for 2018 was about $1.8 million.”
Maybe, but maybe not after poking around on Zieman and McClatchy’s financials.
Mikle Fannin, suited pup for his DUI mugshot taken shortly before he was promoted to editor
Those McClatchy stock options haven’t exactly been golden or even present in recent years.
For example, of Zieman’s reported $1.8 million compensation for 2018, $678,846 was received as salary with another $812,039 received as a bonus, $0 in stock options, $214,141 as stock and $99,600 from other types of compensation.”
Records show that Zieman has been unloading his McClatchy stock in dribs and drabs, ranging from$40,000 to $106,000 a pop.
Guess we’ll see…or more likely, we won’t.
One thing’s clear:
Throughout the entire McClatchy ownership of the Star, neither Zieman nor Fannin was able to design a viable course of action for the survival of the newspaper.
Other than ramping up an out-of-control editorial board and allowing the inmates to run the asylum, there have been no notable improvements or changes to the way the newspaper approaches the art of journalism – other than making staff cuts.
The $64 billion question: Is this a sign that local daily newspapers will soon be joining the ranks of businesses past like Sears, Metcalf South as rotary dial telephones as historical footnotes?
Sure looks that way.
GTood to know though that the folks who are drivi9ng the business into the ditch are being well compensated for their futile attempts at reimagining local reporting.
THIS is why I tune in! That and seeing Jennifer again was bonus.
Well, you got me, KB…
Might be time for a Watson’s Girl update
Hopefully the reality won’t be sadder than the fantasy.
If they ran it from an unbiased, purely down the middle politically positioned “Paper Of Record”, I think it would still be viable and at some level, profitable.
The Kansas City Star, like over 90% of the Main Stream Media, is, joined at the hip, to the DNC and the Deep State. There are no Better Angels on the shoulders of the “Triumvirate”. These three entities are at war with the middle class – The American People.
The Deep State, Democrats, Republicans (One in the same.) and the Main Stream Media are the behind-the-curtain Triumvirate that Americans have bent their knees to for the last 7 decades. Their unabashed support for the continuation of the power of the chosen, select few is now challenged by the churlish, unacceptable and bumptious Donald Trump, an unlikely hero at the gates.
Here are a few of the many “Bombshell” scandals that the Triumvirate insisted would bring down the Presidency.
The Russiagate hysteria.
The Russian hacker hysteria.
The Russian Facebook mind-control hysteria.
The Hitler hysteria.
The mass fascism hysteria.
The anti-Semitism hysteria.
The concentration camp hysteria.
The white supremacist terrorism hysteria.
Russian spy whales.
Perfume assassins.
The endless stream of fabricated “news” stories pumped out by the corporate media.
Best-selling books, based on nothing.
Comedians singing hymns to former FBI directors on national television.
Celebrities demanding CIA coups.
Papers of record like The New York Times coordinating blatant propaganda campaigns.
Maybe this time, the Triumvirate will indeed bring down Trump.
The “Narrative Collapse” that eventually accompanied the aforementioned “Scandals” brought no shame, nor cessation of the continuing assaults on Trump. “Bellum Se Ipsum Alet”. This War Will Feed Itself”.
I miss Jennifer the Watson’s Girl! Wonder what ever became of her. She lost her gig when Watson’s became Family Leisure in the 2000s. Hope that didn’t put her out on the street, although I would pick her up in a heartbeat.
Stand by!
Jeez, the Watsons girl…relevant much? How about some news about Quinn Snyder or maybe some tidbits about Kay Barnes, or the scuttlebutt about Don Fortune’s cat, or that crazy new sports reporter in town big fat guy Jason something. Didn’t he call Tom Brady a name or something?
OK KC, see your point…
That said, every now and again people like to flash back and wonder what ever became of…?
Maybe not you, but that’s what makes the world go round.
Quinn Snyder…actually, you got my curiosity there, but I don’t recall any of the all-ages local corndogs wanting to, uh, you know.
And it was Don Fortunes dog – not cat – Mr. Memory.
The one that soiled the condo he soiled in Overland Park and the guy who bought it didn’t notice until Fortune moved out and all the unreadable stains here laid bare.
Ohn yeah, FYI…that big fat guy at the Star loved that scoop. Hated Fortunado.
Any other requests?
Randy Miller wanted to bed the Watson’s Girl so bad. I remember he had a golf tournament one time and flew her in as a special appearance. We all loved her.
Got a communique from her, will run that one by her when we talk shortly for an update…thinking she’s like 41 now.
I remember interviewing her once right before she got married and she told me that her new goal in life was to be a mother and a MILF.
True confession time: Had to ask her what a MILF was and unashamedly she told me.
Small leap for man…
dude.
that’s just the sadz.
Cost-cutting at the KC Star occuring half a century ago, could’ve resulted stock artist renderings replacing photos…
CAPTION THAT PIC #1
‘Chiefs Offense of the 70’s sinks on its maiden NFL voyage aft colliding with Vikings post-Superbowl IV rematch’: Minnesota 27 Kansas City 10
CAPTION THAT PIC #2
Nod the Watson girl/keeping the sporting motif, the Oakland Raiders DE ‘Gentle’ Ben Davidson preferred “corn-fed midwest girls”… Ben also preferred his QB’s choked out by the neck, punched in the face/jaw and speared small of their back (KC, circa 1970): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6EF9bBmOKU
CAPTION THAT PIC #3
If you’ve seen one you’ve seen ’em all (good thing mug shots come a name attached… too easy mistake one face for another): speaking of another (besides KC Star/Chiefs) already dead and buried, 2019:
https://www.sciencesource.com/archive/John-Dillinger–American-Gangster-SS2811284.html (exhumation scheduled December… John, not Chiefs or Star)
😎
The lights went out in that place a long time ago. Can’t turn off what isn’t there.
Used to be a sports anchor at 41 with Jack Harry back then who used to go out with her when she was in town. Used to see them at Houston’s every once in awhile.
Unless someone was killed or seriously hurt, two DUI’s should not be a disqualifier. He’s a newspaper man, not a school bus driver or airline pilot. Think Hemmingway was a tee-totaler when he briefly worked at the paper? Or is that just another historical footnote.
The affair is fair game.