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Kansas City Star subscribers had a bit more to be grateful for this Thanksgiving…
Less so, it’s advertisers.
While Thursday’s Star was chock full of ads from anxious retailers it looked less chocked than last year
For starters, it hit driveways in one – not two – plastic bags, indicating fewer advertisers had opted to go with print for post Thanksgiving shopping scams.
But as the scholars at Dale Carnegie stress, never give a fact without the benefit.
The benefit to subscribers was the Star decided not to dun them for the extra $1.25 it did last year. That’s when it said it needed the extra moolah to pay for all the extra ads it sold and the heavier paper.
KC Confidential’s Jack Poessiger called it just another slap in the face for readers who had supported the shrinking, lighter-in-weight Star in recent years.
"It almost smacks of a movie theatre raising ticket prices an extra buck because they increased the number of their screen ads before the feature film," Poessiger wrote
So was it the lighter weight or complaints that caused the Star not to gouge readers for the extra buck?
"That was awful," says one Star staffer of last year’s upcharge."It’s ridiculous to have to pay extra for a bunch of ads. I think they didn’t do it this year because the paper’s healthier."
Speaking of inserts, my Saturday Star came with no less than seven copies of that day’s Nebraska Furniture Mart ad.
And at no extra charge!
Hearne got super served by STAR
They must’ve figured that sticking all those copies in your Saturday paper was better than getting rid of them in the Star’s dumpster.
Or they were trying to make a point with the Christopher subscription.
Or the figured it took 7 copies for Hearne to make heads or tails of the insert.
Or.
You get the idea.
hh
Is Hen House back in The Star?
despite hearne’s attacks
the star’s biz is up…and its going to really get going in 2011. I read
some info on the company nad they expect to have healthy profits
in 2011 and 2012. As the economy comes back..as recruiting
expands and most importantly as the auto industry comes roaring
back you can expect the star to get heavier.
Despite hearnes hatred for the star…i just recently started reading
the actual paper. I really missed the hard copy. reading on the
internet just was easier and more convenient but also was not
as informative.
Hearne…you are considered avjoke outside your little group of’friends.
The major media have forgotten you and most people now think you
have disapparede. yOU really have no medium to carry your rumors.
and the content on this site has fallen to an all time low.
I havent seen any new advertisers on your site…just the same old
lazy ads that have been on here for a year.
Who cares how many inserts you got…Nebraska Furniture Mart is
spending millions to own this market with the star. another lame
article.
You no longer carry the influence you had with the star. You are another
local guy trying to hang on to being a celebrity as your once shining
star has faded out.
I think we are seeing the fall of kcc…it may jus go the way of the
other mediums that no longer exist…just dying a slowcdeath.
Just my opinion and that of many others who i meet and talk with
everyday…
good luck,…..
Check Your Facts, Hearne
You may want to check your facts about the "extra charge." I quit taking the Star almost two years ago, but on Thanksgiving morning, I went out and purchased a paper at the local Price Chopper.
It went through the scanner and appeared on the register as "Sunday Star" and I was charged $2. I talked to a number of people who also said they were charged $2 not only at Price Chopper but also at other grocery stores that day.
Still a bargain even at $2.00 …
I was in St. Louis the day after T-giving and was surprised at just how much bigger the paper was there … must have been 10X the ads. Any knowledge on the health of the Post Dispatch?
cliffy. …hearne was wrong as always
hearne hates the star. They took away his audience that he enjoyed
for years even though his journalistic style was below average.
When they took away his vehicle…he was left with this!
KCC…a once exciting fun easyv to follow blog that now doesnt
even get hits. It’s now become his own little sand box to play with.
The kc star always has made money…not much…but because it
was part of a large corporation thatoverpaid for additional papers
in other markets ad who had huge debt they needed the cash
from the star to make their payments. Unfportunately they ransacked
the star and tried to extract as muc hmoney as possible from the paper
until they literall choked it to death.
But where do people have to go for sports (espn could careless about
kc…/talk radio is so diluted/tv: hardly any mention of stats etc) so
they have the star.
Financial readers…no where to go…for daily bus iness news they
need the star..
and nw that business is picking up in almost all areas the star will
see a huge ncrease in sales…especially in the auto area which has
lagged over the last 2 years.
We need the star to survive…without it politcians won’tstay honest…
we won’t have daily info on what happening in the city….and
we won’t be able to see whats on sale and what businesses
are doing. this last thanksgiving…all the women at our house (20)
talked about the big sales on black friday…they all read and bought
the star…thatsgood indicator for the star to get more ad bisiness.
But poor old hearne needs to sticxk the dagger in the star one more
time…..truth is the star will survive and probably be more
profitable without hearne/pos/whitlock etc. who were the "big shots"
a t the star.
funny thing is that all 3 are down and out now. All lost their vehicle
to scream crap. None of them were really journalists…one was a
b.s.er…another a boring run on writer…and naother was so full of
bull he weighed 300 pounds.
See…not one of those 3 were indispensable to the star.
all have moved on to lesser positions and probably willv fade over
time. It was the star that made them..
so hearne…stop trying to kill off the star…they are here to stay and
stop carring a chip on your shoulder……..they gave you a chance to
write your columns andin the end you were dispensable…just like
all of us are.
Now restore your site to its prior glory and get back to great stories
by people who know what theyre talking about. good luck…i hope
you see the light and make changes…i really enoy some of these writers…
even glazer.i
I, too, get tired of the attempted Star smears.
I lost my job once, too. They said it wasn’t personal … my position was eliminated because of a poor economy. Hurts, but I got over it. I’m still good friends with the guy who told me I was gone. He’s even thrown some business my way and I’m doing better than ever. Move on. Get rid of the agenda.