KICKASS TKC TIPSTERS are saying that
Urban Times could be the next Kansas City publication casualty.
Personally, I like dancing on the grave of any dead tree publication so their hardships haven't inspired much grief on my part.
Here are just a few of the reasons to (gleefully) await the demise of Urban Times (Other than the fact that the entire publication is nothing more than a marketing gimmick for Boveri Realty Group):
The most recent publisher's letter from Christina Boveri announces that they are now going bi-monthly from monthly because of the recession. And she literally begs the readers to send advertisers their way. It was pretty desperate, she might as well have just asked people to send a dollar in the mail.
CampKC staffers are complaining (LOUDLY) that Urban Times stole their photos (with attribution but no permission) in the Urban Times April issue on page 39. Sorry print people, you're not a blog and have to play by the rules.
Their current issue has 21 pages of advertising out of a folio of 82 pages. That ratio probably barely pays the print bills let alone their contractors, sales commissions, staff or contractors. Forget about profit.
Honestly . . . Does anyone refer to themselves as "Urban" . . . The term is either used pejoratively or as some marketing gimmick . . . From the inception, this mag has been fudged.
They don't really update their website . . . I think they're still on the March issue . . . And I think the Cauthen Cover was probably their crowning achievement.
All things considered . . . This HOT MESS of a magazine might not be too much longer for this world in much the same way that, just as I predicted, a great many of the smartest former Star Staffers are now working in PR.
And while I want to note that the demise of a Condo & Loft mag reflects the overall failure of the so-called "Kansas City Downtown Renaissance" . . . The fact is, their forthcoming departure from the metro media landscape doesn't really matter.
Fierce.
ReplyDeleteAlways easier to complain about people that are trying to do something.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Tony. What is your Mom making for dinner tonight, I bet you know.
what were they "trying to do"? besides creating a faux sense of community in Crossroads/Downtown to make a buck on real estate commissions
ReplyDeleteYeah, better to bitch and blog
ReplyDeleteDead mag walking. That rag has been pay to play ever since the original editor left. Boveri fucked over a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteDead mag walking. That rag has been pay to play ever since the original editor left. Boveri fucked over a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteMzed it lasted this long, she must have gotten tired of spending her own money to keep it going. And she does seem like she has more than a few screws loose.
ReplyDeleteTwo funny things: Dead Mag walking
ReplyDeleteand Bitching and blogging = Same thing.
You know a magazine is doomed when Cauthen is "person of the year". Talk about dredging the channel.
ReplyDeleteCauthen's got that puffy-cheeked assface thing going on in that photo.
ReplyDeleteAs a contributor to Urban Times (had an article this time about MyARTS, which is a pretty sweet city-funded arts program for at-risk youth) I feel compelled to respond to this (somewhat predictable) discussion of Urban Times.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you're right about some things. Times are tough for all print media. Ink and The Pitch are both dramatically down in pages over the last year, and we all know what's been going on with the Star. UT has bit the bullet and kept its page count pretty much the same as its been since its launch back in the summer of 2007.
Secondly, yes, Urban Times is published by Christina Boveri of Boveri Realty group, as is clearly listed in the magazine. Obviously this has some bearing on the content being focused on downtown. But unlike the Pitch or the Star, which both answer to out-of-state corporate parents, it's a locally owned publication.
Christina's background is in real estate and not publishing, but from what I've seen she's treated the staff well and done her best to pursue interesting and relevant stories to the KC area, avoiding (for the most part) political coverage and investigative features in favor of spotlighting businesses, initiatives, and individuals who are making a difference in Kansas City. The staff is made up of people from across the metro area, and the story ideas come directly from the writers, designers and photographers.
Despite its downtown focus, the mag covers stories in all communities, whether it's KCK, the Westside, Troostwood or downtown. If you were to look through the archive you'd see quite a bit of coverage of things that at the time were new or practically unheard of and are now widely known in the city. An example would be Brooke Salvaggio's Bad Seed food market, which Urban Times wrote about almost six months before Pitch, KC Star and Ink all did profiles about it.
I have to agree that hearing the word "urban" gets tiresome. I'm not any more enchanted by most aspects of the downtown renaissance than any other skeptical blogger. I've lived here much of my life and always find it sad to see people get enthusiastic about things like Power and Light that are too artificial and inorganic to really work.
But when it comes down to it I'd rather cast my lot with the people who are trying to actually do something in this town than those who sit behind the safety of a computer screen and bitch about absolutely everything.
I'm not sure what TKC's vision of an ideal Kansas City is, and I'd be curious to see if he could actually answer that question without falling back on the snack cake/white women tropes. But if the defeatist tone of this blog is any indication, it would be a pretty dismal place. Not that I don't appreciate the links and hard work that goes into this site. It just gets old reading about how bad everything sucks.
Writing about the positive things in this city -- like I tried to do with the MyARTS article and I know the other UT writers try to do with each of their stories -- is not terribly significant in and of itself. But when people who live here, just moved here, or are passing through pick up a copy of the magazine and see the kinds of interesting things that are happening, they might see that it is possible to carve out a niche for themselves, their creative projects or their businesses in Kansas City.
That, in my opinion, is what the magazine is all about. Selling real estate may be the objective of the publisher in her capacity as a real estate agent, but for the several dozen people who actually put the magazine together, it's much more about highlighting what's going on in town.
So polish up your gravedancing sneaks if you like. Just don't hold your breath.
Thanks for reading.
Lucas Wetzel
shut up bitch!
ReplyDeleteKC urban?????? It's a shithole cowtown!
ReplyDeleteInk and the Star are the same thing, Lucas Wetblanket.
ReplyDeleteIt's a separate publication. Ink is published by the star, but they're distributed separately and have largely separate staffs with a certain amount of overlap.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input, though, dickhead.
Present wrote about Bad Seed a few times and several months before UT, Ink, or Pitch.
ReplyDeletewho is present?
ReplyDeletepresentmagazine.com... online. no print. found em through tony a few years ago
ReplyDeletethis blog is boring
ReplyDeleteits got me snoring
under my wetblanket