12-03-2008 OPINION KC STAR NO LONGER DELIVERS ON ITS VALUE PROPOSITION WITH ITS LOYAL READERS By John Landsberg Subscribers to the Kansas City Star are probably feeling a little empty these days. And sad. Very sad. The announcement of the most recent cuts in the editorial side of Kansas City's largest newspaper have moved readers from surprise to absolute shock. It is one thing to cut the fat; another to cut into the bone. It is the talk of every other media outlet in town. A few cynics will say, "Who cares?" Well, based on the feedback we have received, a helluva lot of folks do. In fact, when this site started posting some of the names of Star employees let go our hits were four times higher than in any single day in our history. Thousands of folks cared. Previous terminations at the Star have dramatically reduced and even eliminated coverage of such areas as consumer reporting, marketing, advertising, crime, etc. They hurt. VALUE PROPOSITION However, the cuts have impacted what marketers refer to as the paper's unique "value proposition." In essence, the Kansas City Star is no longer delivering what it "promised" its customers when they subscribed to it. Its unique brand personality has also been diminished. These latest cuts are moving loyal customers from talking about "our" Kansas City Star to simply "the" Kansas City Star. It is a huge shift in the way readers feel about the newspaper. Emotional ties have been cut. Think of a radio station you listened to for years that suddenly changed its format from easy listening to hard rock. The call letters might be the same, but it is no longer "your" radio station. It no longer delivers value to you as it did in the past.
SECTIONS DISAPPEARING.... Familiar sections like MoneyWise and Travel have been reduced/moved, consumer news is virtually gone in a time when it is vitally important to readers. The daily "Opinion" section is now a single page. The joke now is the only reason the Star has any editorial copy is that it is necessary to keep all the advertising supplements from falling out. And all the while the Star has increased its price, shrunken its overall size and its number of pages.
'OUR' HEARNE, FLANNY, JUDGE... Over the years we fully admit routinely picking on Hearne Christopher, Jr. for using the "same six sources" in his columns. He was defensive about it, and often let us know. We even stopped calling him a "gossip" columnist because he was so sensitive about it. But, like most readers of the Star, we actively searched out Hearne's column. When it didn't appear for any reason we felt a bit cheated. Love him or hate him, his column was one of the most-read in the paper. The same was true for Lee Judge's cartoons. They could make you cringe. Sometimes you laughed, sometimes you were sad or even mad. Heck, sometimes they even made you think... But, dammit, Judge was OUR cartoon guy for years. He added a truly unique flavor to the paper. That should count for something. Sadly, it didn't mean a thing to the powers that be at the Star. The same was true for Jeffrey Flanagan in sports. For 19 years he didn't try to shock readers every day by manufacturing some fake sports controversies. Flanagan's "Top of the Mornin'" column gave quick, unique takes on issues. Now the Star is simply plugging in other sportswriters into his "Top of the Mornin" column. This certainly is not to diminish many of the other wonderful journalists (and friends) let go in the past few months at the Star. Most did the behind-the-scenes grunt work necessary to get the paper out each day. Readers can already find more typos, bumped headlines and other mistakes in every issue. (See JoeyCuts photo.)
OUT WITH THE GOOD... Many media critics have speculated why some very talented journalists were let go while many less talented ones remain: $$$$. We will never really know the truth. The sad part is that these latest cuts at the Star have now successfully changed its unique brand personality and the value proposition it promised loyal readers over the years. "You know, it used to be that the joke was news would appear in the Star and then on TV stations that night," says a local TV anchor. "Now I pick up the Star and say, 'We had that story last night...and that one...and that one.' It has completely changed now." The huge changes at the Star are very personal to loyal readers. Their favorite writers, columnists and sections have disappeared. It is kind of like having your best friend move far away. You are still friends, but it just isn't the same.
FEEDBACK "Thank you for your post on the Star.I could not agree more. "In a time and day when the print media is trying to attract via the web, Hearne and Flanny were both people I went to (on-line) everyday... "Even in news, the detailed story on LJ's civil suit had a detailed AP story on Fox Sports yesterday, and the Star had one paragraph??But yes I agree with you, the firings took away the concepts/writers that brought uniqueness to the Star, which I thought is what they wanted."
Copyright 2008 Bottom Line Communications. BLC is a Web News Site that analyzes media and marketing issues. Please give credit or link to www.bottomlinecom.com when using any materials. Click on the FEEDBACK tab to send any media tips/comments/thoughts/feedback. We honor off-the-record requests and will correct/clarify any information found not to be 100% accurate.
