THE TKC SUNDAY SPECIAL!!! TOP 5 NOT SO TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE UPCOMING KANSAS CITY STAR PAYWALL!!!
Once again the Kansas City Star is attempting to lock up their content.
It's a naive decision which fails to realize that people will simply search for other FREE alternatives.
Take a peek:
STARTING ON DEC. 5TH THE KANSAS CITY STAR IS MOVING TO A PAYWALL SYSTEM!!!
There's a myth which claims this will impact the local discourse . . . This myth is INCORRECT because The Star closes off comments on the most controversial stories so that the public doesn't have an easy way to voice their opinion - A paywall piles on top of this mistake along with alienating and silencing the reading public in an even more cynical manner.
Meanwhile . . . Most news The Star "breaks" is quickly picked up by television stations who are engaged in real competition which demands their content is blasted far and wide.
It gets worse . . .
Look around any local gathering spot . . . Notice anybody carrying around a paper? Didn't think so. iPad mini was also announced this week and in that announcement it was revealed that more than 100 million iPads have been sold already. While the Chinese slave labor that produces tablet and mobile phone technology is tragic . . . These numbers related to tech that's replacing Dead Tree Media offer us a clear glimpse into the future.
To wit . . .
THE STAR IS DIGGING THEIR GRAVE EVEN FURTHER WITH THIS PAYWALL STRATEGY THAT HAS ALREADY RUINED THEIR COVERAGE!!!
Kansas City political denizens might remember a KC Star political effort called the "buzz blog." It wasn't horrible. In fact, it became so popular that Dead Tree Media publishing geniuses attempted to erect pay wall service that FAILED miserably.
In the final analysis . . . Nobody is going to pay for Steve Kraske to state the obvious.
What happened with the buzz blog provides a template for the paywall's future: IF the Star broke a story then word would travel fast (as it always does) and other news sites, blogs and TV stations took the news as their own and relayed it to their viewers, readers, friends and family. This doesn't have to be a cut and paste job and can easily be done with a simple one sentence summary for readers who don't care much about details anyhoo . . .
It's not that information wants to be free . . . The fact of the matter is that PEOPLE TALK and profiting from content in the digital era has become an increasingly tricky prospect. The worst thing about The Star's paywall is that the move implies Dead Tree Media leadership still REFUSE TO LEARN that the Internets connects people with links, comments, mentions, retweets, likes, images, pokes, sharing and references - These actions are what drive the digital culture and the future. Even worse, The Star's spin (their most valuable corporate asset) on the issues of the day will be now be hidden and far less important.
So, this scheme has already failed The Star and trying again just seems like they're slamming their head against a paywall and refusing to innovate. For our part, the decision isn't that big of a deal: TKC links other sites, TV stations, radio stations, blogs, social media and all things on the web . . . TKC doesn't just fill Kansas City's news hole. We stretch it out a bit. Natch.
To wit . . .
CHECK THE TOP 5 NOT SO TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE UPCOMING KANSAS CITY STAR PAYWALL!!!
5. The Star refused to implement my "tokens for a Latina token" pay-per-view system for Mary Sanchez reader interaction.
4. After complaining of a so-called "digital divide" The Star shows their hypocritical approach to publishing by partaking in the same tactic which they criticized in other ventures on the Internets. In other words, I want my subscription for free.
3. Mike "Please Not Another Pay Cut" Hendricks might not be able to afford to show his friends his latest discount work.
2. Maybe the public might be spared from a volley of opinions and endorsements regarding political candidates rather than any real reporting.
1. People will get their news some place else for free.
For the last remaining people who vote and care about the local discourse, this move is a big deal but remember that the most tragic fact regarding this decision is that most people in Kansas City don't really care.
Hopefully, more later . . . Maybe after the game . . .
I disagree.
ReplyDeleteThe Star. That paper nobody under 40 reads. A bunch of journals slobbing knob for political favors.
ReplyDeleteThe Star has been largely reduced to running wire service stories and using third rate "journalists" to generate opinion pieces and local content (Kraske? Collison? Fael? Diuguid? Hendricks? Give me a break!!!).
ReplyDeleteThe Star enjoyed a certain measure of relevance because it was one of the few vehicles for old school " opinion makers" to get their side of the story out at little expense.. The move to pay wall will send those seeking coverage to other media outlets.
The New York Times is worth it.
ReplyDeleteIf your gonna read the New York Times, you should read this to balance out the bullshit.
ReplyDeletehttp://crimesofthetimes.blogspot.com/
PLEASE!! Buy the fuckin KC Star.
ReplyDeleteHere is the MONEY quote from Tony.
ReplyDelete"Even worse, The Star's spin (their most valuable corporate asset) on the issues of the day will be now be hidden and far less important."
Dead on the money.
And this---
ReplyDelete"Look around any local gathering spot . . . Notice anybody carrying around a paper? Didn't think so. iPad mini was also announced this week and in that announcement it was revealed that more than 100 million iPads have been sold already."
Again, dead on the money.
The KC Star is like a bout of rectal itch.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how you access the thing, it still stinks.
jajajajaja!!!! FTW!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting, the way that the Liberal Red Star is destroying itself, holding fast to outdated and decrepit paradigms from the past.
ReplyDeleteThe analogy, of the liberal policies, politicians and a liberal zeitgeist that believes, in the face of the unambiguated evidence to the contrary, that the course they are on, is not destroying America, lends itself to the efforts of the Kansas City Red Star.
The Star kills itself and helps kill, like most all traditional main stream media, the country and people in the country they hope to inform.
The Pay Wall is, in effect, a "Chinese Wall" erected by ignorant design, to separate the paper of record's diminishing influence on Kansas City citizens even further from thier target.
When seeking local news I don't avoid the Star but I don't expect to find anything different than I will find on the local TV station websites. For national and international news I stopped reading local newspapers years ago. Star editorial content is predictable and not overly inciteful. So... why am I going to pay for this???
ReplyDeleteWill they give rebates for the second, third times they run the very same article?
ReplyDeleteKansas City Star? NEVER HEARD OF IT!!
ReplyDeleteOMG what am I gonna do I won't be able to get my material from the Star free anymore!!
ReplyDeleteParrish has done a good job finishing off and destroying whats left of The Star. A once widely respected publication. The digital version has pretty much become just another sports rag.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the only people carrying around a newspaper in America are people riding the subways or TV news people... because radio and tv news people start their day with local papers and the wire services that republish them. No one else is covering the news.
ReplyDeleteElectronic media just go though the motions of newsgathering. Useless liveshots, weather every five minutes and video of police crime scene tape across ghetto streets. Smoke and mirrors, all of it. TV covers events, press conferences, PR handout news.
Tout all ya want about the loss of newspapers because people don't want to pay for news. Citizens will be the losers for being too cheap. When the newspapers go, so will enterprise news. And so will the fourth estate's ability to watchdog government and society.
What will Radio and TV do THEN... other than covering car accidents and shootings?
Government will love it...no one will be watching them.
A sports rag?
ReplyDeleteThanks goodness that's true ... where else would I get all of the backstory on the superb coaching at the Royals, Chiefs, and how about those football geniuses at KU and MU.
The mistake the Star made was removing the Local News section when it should have been the sports.
If the paywall is done right, ie: The New York Times, it can actually become a site worthy of charging people money. Tony, the Star has to do something to stop the bleeding and keeping people employed. How many do you employ? None I bet. So in reality you don't do crap to help our economy. Now please, go and bitch me out. Oh and by the way, I don't work for the Star, never worked for the Star, never will work for the Star. I do work for myself and understand I as a business have to make a profit to keep employing people.
ReplyDelete100 Million dollars employs 2000 people for one year at $50 grand a year. Star can just take out a loan, churn out junk stuff and everything will be fine.
ReplyDeleteI read this notice in the paper this morning and found it obtuse. Does this mean everyone will be paying more--even people who subscribe to the print edition and who don't use the online edition? My guess is yes in which case I'll probably do without both.
ReplyDeleteSeems these days the Star focuses too much on party pics of drunks at the P&LD anyway.
ReplyDeleteI for one do remember the days when the Star was a better source of what was happening in KC and the area than the internet is today.
ReplyDeleteThen people like Hearne Christopher and others just like him came along and the level of news starting on a spiral down fall it never recovered from.
The internet didn't kill the Star the over paid dipshit writers that wrote stories nobody cared to read and escalating costs to buy the rag is what killed it.
Then it gets better when the has been writers for the Star go out and say well I will do it better than the Star did on the internet. What they fail to see is their sites suck as bad or worse than the Star and writers like Hearne love to trash the Star when in fact they was a huge part of what killed what was a good newspaper. Hell every good writer Hearne gets on his site he or Glazers crap stories runs them off. He likes to blame the comments section and whats said as the reason of running good writers off. If he would get rid of Glazer who has no talent of any kind he would see a different and better group of people making comments. But as is the Star he is blind and something else I will be nice and not say.
But the Star is in it's last days of operation and I expect a sale if possible of another part of KC that was killed off by people more concerned with themsleves and not the people they served.
You know, Superdave, it just takes one "it's" when you mean "its" to destroy every bit of credibility you might have had.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't like folks are going to pay for crying out loud! I mean come on people; Make your list of the top ten publications you would actually pay for and if the KC Star in on your list you must be drinking fresh coconut juice and climbing trees to fetch breakfast. Best thing the KC Start could do is move to Chicago. At least the death process would be short.
ReplyDeleteWho's the chick in the picture with the big tits?
ReplyDeleteThe Intertubes will save us. They said that the day before the dot.com crash.
ReplyDeleteDoes Dirty Mary even speak Spanish?
ReplyDeleteBTW 12:49, the chick in the picture is Jordan Carver. I did not want you to think it was Mary Sanchez.
Hmmm. Just didn't look like her in the face so I thought Big T might've found us some more biggins.
ReplyDeleteDon't waste time trashing Hearne Christopher's site. He doesn't have enough readers to fill the stands at a middle school basketball game.
ReplyDeleteNone of us bloggers do, all put together.
A new york paper can make money off the internet because of the economies of scale. There just aren't enough news consumers to support home delivery...and without those ads, they can't pay their reporting staff. The newspaper is most assuredly carrying their web efforts.
Just like commercials on TV carry THEIR web efforts.
Remember also that most wire stories carried around the country on all media outlets of every kind, are mostly generated by newspapers. Without them, there won't be much content and like this blog, none of it will be verified. It'll all be handout news received by some whistleblower.
There are much better reports working in television news than any newspaper in the region.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately that region would have to include St Louis and Dallas because outside of a handful, most of the reporters on local TV are just barely a cut above copy boys.
ReplyDeleteDo we really expect wise business decisions from a company that built a multi-million dollar press in a brand new building.....just as the digital information age was taking off?
ReplyDeleteWhat a tough choice to make........season tickets to the Royals, season tickets to the Chiefs, or pay for the KC Star....... The dollar menu at McDonald's it is!
ReplyDeleteGood point Tim. Thought that myself!
ReplyDeleteTim +1
ReplyDeleteYes Tim brings up a good point.
ReplyDeleteI read the weak justification in today's paper from the publisher. Gawd that woman cannot write nor communicate coherently. After reading her article twice I still wasn't sure who had to pay for electronic content. The Star is a pos paper.
ReplyDelete@10/28/12 11:33PM LOL Are you referring to Lynn Horsely? She's a horrible writer. I can't believe she still has a job... oh, wait, she really kinda works for the City. You don't have to much else but silent to keep a job. After the switch and bait she did, I stopped reading the paper.
ReplyDeleteTony's is my spot for current information. Yay, Tony's!
How much do you pay monthly for cable or satellite tv? I can't believe it, but I pay more for cable than my first house payment. I'll be willing to pay a few bucks to access The Star, and those who don't . . . . when things go to spinach because you weren't in the know, don't blame me.
ReplyDelete