Interested in hooking up with the fastest growing team of area news gatherer/hunters in show biz?
KC Confidential is looking for reporters, writers, artists, photographers, computer design specialists and sales and marketing types. Specifically, we need people to conduct dining, music, nightlife and art reviews, cover urban news and politics, sell and layout ads, conduct and oversee entertainment promotions – you name it!
Got an idea for a column or beat? To paraphrase a certain recently demoted
jh
Goodness Hearne. I’ve heard of growing pains but a staff of how many? Next thing you’ll be bidding on the STAR’s glass palace.
Thank God for the BC Christopher inheritance taking care of kcc’s expanding payroll
JS
Congrats to the KC Confidential Staff! I think what you are doing here is great. Local News and commentary. This is what newspapers used to do before they became a part of a large conglomerates that could care less about the market it serves.
Bob Berdella
God. Be sure to save enough to hire a copy editor.
smartman
As Tony Botello so eloquently said on KCWIR there’s no money “aka” profit in a blog. Whether or not Hearne has family money isn’t that important. He’s never demonstrated an ability to make money on his own. He failed as a concert promoter, failed at The Pitch and The New Times only to have Art Brisbane dust him off. Maybe he’s learned something in the past 60 years. No one in local media seems too worried. If KCC becomes a financial threat to any of the local rags I’m sure the skeletons will come marching out of the closet.
pennman
Damn smartman could you be any more negative? I notice though your reading this blog!
smartman
Pennman: Just keeping it REAL. Making money in any media much less a blog is a tough road to hoe these days. KC is a small market and there’s not enough room for everyone to thrive and prosper financially. At some point it will get ugly and the politics of personal destruction will come into play. Hearne has already played those cards against Mike Hendricks at The Star and Nadia , what’s her name, at The Pitch. In one sense the gloves are already off. To cover the cost of a staff of production artists, columnists, ad sales, marketing and promotions, office costs and other overhead KCC will need to gross at least 500 grand a year, if not more. That’s not going to happen. As a hobby or labor of love KCC might survive. As a profitable business the chances are not so good. Furthermore,niche blogs like KCC or TKC in small markets have not shown an ability to deliver good ROI for advertisers. The advertisers on KCC are all Hearnes cast of friends and characters from his Star column. They are all treated very favorably on this blog. If you’re going to be in the news business you have to be objective and balanced. I have yet to see that level of discipline here. For the current advertisers you could say that KCC is a de facto PR department. I guess we will see the true mettle of the man in the remainder of this year.
dimebag
Smartman: I attened the KCWIR forum at the library with my daughter who is a J-School student at MU. If all you saw is what was on TV you missed a lot. After attending the forum she is now considering a new career path. Last summer she interned for a blog in Minneapolis/St. Paul. They had a staff of 12 full timers and a nut of seventy-grand a month. They were barely making ends meet then and have since folded since the investors pulled the plug. At one point in her internship she sold ads. Basic banner ads sold for one hundred dollars a week and they paid ad sales a fifty percent commission.
If KCC is going to ramp up with paid “professional” staff it will be a tough. I’m sure the ex-Star writers who contribute here were making at least fifty grand plus benefits and Hearne was probably well into the six figures. Greg Hall is a legit six figure guy. I think you’re way off with five hundred grand a year gross. I think it’s closer to one million dollars, which means ad sales will have to be around two million dollars assuming a 50% commission. If my math is correct that’s three hundred eighty five advertisers paying one hundred dollars a week for 52 weeks to reach two million dollars.
ManDshagger
Based on my unofficial count, Greg Hall, (and jojo), are getting the majority of the responses on this blog. KC is a SPORTS town. Greg could probably hang out his own shingle and charge $50.00 to $100.00 a year for a paid subscription. I’m guessing he’d get at least 500 to 1000 people to sign up for a more in depth and frequent OTC and other observations. He could roll in some extra dough from advertisers too. The truth is what it is. Porn, gambling and sports sites are the consistent money makers on the internet.
mermaid
Hearne you know who I am. I’ll work cheap. Let me know. I would be great at covering nightlife ,dining, lifestyles. Need some part time work right now!
c#cksnipe
Mermaid wants your trust-funded fingernails in her inbox. Cheap all right!