MUST READ!!! TKC EXCLUSIVE 'DEAR JOHN' OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS CITY DEAD TREE MEDIA PUBLISHER MI-AI PARRISH!!!
Recently, we took note of a disgruntled Kansas City Dead Tree Media subscriber and his effort to demand satisfaction.
Now . . .
CHECK THIS EPIC OPEN "KISS-OFF" LETTER TO KANSAS CITY DEAD TREE MEDIA PUBLISHER MI-AI PARRISH!!!
Note that this cancellation notice isn't purely about technology or politics . . . Simply a customer complaint about how the organization refuses to acknowledge the concerns of one of their most loyal denizens.
This former LONGTIME subscriber notes the complaints far better than any media critic or pundit ever could. Without further ado, check it:
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Mi-Al Parrish – Publisher and President
1729 Grand Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64108
Dear Ms. Parrish:
I wanted to respond to you directly about why I have left the Kansas City Star as a subscriber after 45 years. Yes I have received continuously, seven days a week, this publication that once was a valued news resource and a proud lady of a paper. Until April 8th 2015.
Prior to April 8th I would start each day with breakfast cereal a cup of coffee and the Kansas City Star. Not now and my routine is in disarray all day because of it but it had to be.
I want to make you aware of something you don’t realize. The Kansas City Star is MY newspaper. Not yours. I have more invested than you will ever have invested in this paper as investments are not always monetary in nature. Under your leadership it has become an over-priced tabloid, a rag, a disgrace to publishing.
I will refrain from personal attacks but I will be blunt. For the past several months I have regularly sent in letters to the editor, which I am sure Louis did not share with you personally. I have railed against the decimation of this institution that has fallen in size, content and balance since you assumed the role of President and Publisher. Gone are several of the trusted reporters. Gone is the physical size of the pages and sections everyone I know use to enjoy, especially the Sunday magazine section. Gone are the balanced viewpoints on politics.
Now we have a very few of the old line reporters but we also must suffer the horrible writings of Thomas, Rose, Rice, Diuguid, Abouhalkah and Shelly. Also the Lee Judge cartoons aren’t worth using for toilet paper and his Royals coverage sucks. Daily what is fed to us is not unbiased. The coverage seems to promote the perception that we are all racist and prejudiced. It seems to promote that leaders want to hold people down economically, untrue, if people want to get educated and work for a living then they should get rewards. It’s all Anti-Catholic, actually Anti-religion too, it’s Anti-Brownback, it’s Anti-Kansas, it’s Anti-Republican, it’s Anti-Johnson County, Anti-Rich (which includes you), anti-work for your money and position and it is pro-tax and spend, pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-welfare and free healthcare and etc. A good reporter tells a story on the basis of WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY and WHERE. That is not happening at the Kansas City Star.
I left the Kansas City Star because of how I was treated (as well as all regular subscribers) when I called to address why my billing had increased 15% I told the person on the phone that I would not pay the increase because the VALUE you give me has dramatically decreased. He offered me a small discount but not down to the last billing. I said I would stay at $6.82 per week and no one could or wanted to make that happen. Today I pay the Kansas City Star nothing. Now you send me a card saying you want me back offering about $1, 00 per week discount from my increased billing. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. It just supports my point that you do not know what your subscribers are willing to pay for because you do not know the value of the resource you have at the Kansas City Star. I have also received an offer for subscription renewal for $2.75 a week. Your organization does not understand how to price your product. But you also have to produce value and you cannot shrink to greatness.
You do not seem to realize that the people that pay for home delivery of the Kansas City Star are not working at McDonalds or riding a bike to work or elsewhere for minimum wage. Your subscribers are the respected and the wealthy and middle class mainly professionals that live in Johnson County, Lee’s Summit, Liberty and the northland. They are the businesses and libraries and schools. I can assure you that when it comes to journalism professionals the Kansas City Star has fallen down the back stairs of respectable journalism. Your “want you back” card boasts of “award-winning local journalists”, who are they and how many years ago did they get the award? Not recently, they have been laid-off.
I believe the goal of all major daily papers should be that IF they gave away FREE the paper every day then they’d break even. That means adding value to the advertiser customer and adding value to the subscriber customer. You need to get your act together if you expect to have a product at all in the near future and I am sorry to say this but you may have to share one of your position with a good businessman and a good editor. You may end up being the sacrifice that McClatchy makes to save this paper.
Maybe you need some perspective on how your subscribers feel by personally signing each “I want you back” cards, you probably don’t have enough time in the day. I understand this paper is hemorrhaging readers and subscribers.
Right now, even the $2.75 per week offer is not worth it to bring me back. When you get this grand old lady of a paper back in shape send me a free copy to review and I’ll consider coming back then.
Sorry, I cannot accept your current offer. Here is your card back.
Sincerely,
Billed To The Max
#######
Bravo.
ReplyDeleteIf only their columnists communicated as effectively.
Translation:
ReplyDeleteDear Ms. Parrish,
I am a right winger and your paper insistence on publishing facts instead of just reinforcing my half-baked opinions really doesn't fit my worldview. I only want to be exposed to propaganda that makes me feel like my biases are not baseless.
Sincerely,
Entitled white male shill
Denial. How sad.
DeleteGosh, an angry conservative, what a rarity...
ReplyDeleteDear subscriber. Any moron knows we have not been a real newspaper for at least a couple of decades. If we gave a rats ass we'd still be printing a newspaper instead of serving as a container for the weekly retail advertisements and coupons that you will no longer be buying from us. Best of luck with your copy of the Pitch.
ReplyDeleteI'm a liberal, I cancelled my KC Star subscription years ago.
ReplyDeleteDear Idiot,
ReplyDeleteIf you actually read the paper you'd know it's Lewis.
Please go ahead and die so we can complete our transition to digital.
Love,
The Star
Digital star sucks too. Same garbage. Blocks reader until receives money. Money not paid. Reader gone. Digital fail.
DeleteSpeaking of lousy reporting what happened to the 1.8 BILLION in stimulus money Baltimore got 5 years ago?
ReplyDeleteSHOCK!!! EYEWITNESS IN #BALTIMORE SEES AN #OFFICER INVOLVED SHOOTING THAT NEVER HAPPENED!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDear subscriber,
ReplyDeleteWe have yet to pull our heads out of our collective ass and put a product on the market that speaks to any but the narrowest segment of the public. We are an artifact of a time when the reader did not have the ready choice of a world of news options. We have failed to grasp this and we choose to ignore valid concerns from our few remaining customers.
Because we're just that dumb.
The Sunday paper: a joke. Take away the inserts and you've got pretty well nil. The Monday paper? There isn't enough to it to fill the bottom of a bird cage. And then there's the Sunday business section---NOT.
ReplyDeleteCompare this paper to the similar sized market of Las Vegas (the RJ) and there IS no comparison.
Hate to say it but it's too late to CATCH A FALLING STAR.....
It's been all downhill since local ownership left the building.
ReplyDeleteWhat say ye Yael T "Fael" Abouhalkah? Look what you have helped accomplish in your desperate quest to keep your paycheck coming :( Most of your colleagues are gone, the paper has become less than a joke and you, the Old Lion of the Press, cant even allow open comments to your articles.
ReplyDeleteDo you really plan on going horizontally, Yael?
North East News is easier to work with
ReplyDeleteNewspapers all over the nation are in a state of decline/transition. Unfortunately,there are no institutions to take their place. Blogs such as this only add to the difficulty that the average citizen finds when trying to sort out facts and listen to reasoned opinion.
ReplyDeleteBut still Bryan Stalder calls The Star and bitches about the lack of coverage of his "campaign."
ReplyDeleteDon't you, Bryan?
8:35 nailed it
ReplyDeleteKansas City Star has went Down the Toilet every since O'bama took office !
ReplyDeleteThese New Age Communist Liberals are really good at screwing up everything they lay their hands on and its starting to show everywhere with everything !
Liberals cater & pander to Criminals and Degenerates, have phony Bullshit Agendas they want to run up everybodys Ass, then run & hide !
Liberalism is a Disease, don't catch it, and stay away from those that have it !!
6:47 = threatened liberal obama cocksucker.
ReplyDeleteThe letter is dead on the money.
ReplyDeleteThe Star is agitprop bullshit from columnists who would ne modestly qualified to cover a fender bender in a shopping center parking lot.
The incessant, metronomic reproductions of Liberal talking points are as multitudinous as subpoena's from Congress to the DOJ and are ignored in the same way.
The Subpoenas at least are searching for truth, something the KC Star gave up on decades ago.
Dear Former Subscriber "Billed To The Max",
ReplyDeleteJust between you and me, I won't contest most of your criticism, and I do appreciate you not making it personal.
You see "Bill", what you don't realize, and what I never told you, is that when I assumed the helm of your longtime paper it was in the role of a corporate downsizer.
Did you ever see the 2009 film "Up In The Air" starring George Clooney? Ironically, it was filmed primarily in St. Louis. I was appointed to my current position in 2011, nearly 4 years ago now. Do you know how many KC Star employees have been "downsized" since I took over? I must admit that I've made it a personal rule not to keep track of such things.
Without intending to toot my own horn, let me briefly review my career highlights:
The McClatchy Company named Mi-Ai Parrish (then age 40)as president and publisher of The Kansas City Star effective June 2011.
Since July 2006, Parrish has been the president and publisher of the McClatchy-owned Idaho Statesman newspaper in Boise. She arrived at the Idaho Statesman after a journalism career at some of the country’s largest metro newspapers.
Parrish was the deputy managing editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune from 2002-2006; served as deputy managing editor at the San Francisco Chronicle from 2001 to 2002; was the deputy managing editor at The Arizona Republic from 1999 to 2001; and held key editing roles at the Chicago Sun-Times from 1993 to 1999, including assistant Sunday editor.
Parrish began her newspaper career at The Virginian-Pilot in 1992 as a copy editor and reporter before being promoted to assistant business editor.
Now "Bill", why is it do you think that I was accepted into the editor's role before I really had any journalism experience to speak of? And wasn't that quite a leap from little Boise 200,000 population to KCMO population 460,000!!
As I said previously, my role as an outsider, was to come in and "cut to the bone" and hope that not too many subscribers like yourself would jump ship from our monopoly position as the only daily newspaper.
Sincerely, or whatever,
Mi-Ai Perish the thought
The KC Star has not covered metro KC in my memory. Just ask anybody who wanted publicity for a JoCo or WyCo event even 40 years ago. If you were not part of the Jewell Ball, etc, you could not get even a mention in the Star.
ReplyDeleteWe all learned to live with it, but the Star was just not covering events in our lives. Not politics, education, social life, or anything else.
Now it doesn't matter. Like a neglected wife, we have moved on. I think the management of the Star (which admittedly is not the same) is really gobsmacked. "What happened?" They dont have a clue.
I live in a Seniors building .. Many of us are mobility challenged so each morning I meet the star carrier and deliver the paper to the units. Five years ago each morning i delivered around 3o papers and this is a 156 unit building or about 20 percent of the units. This morning I delivered ten to paying subscribers. The escalation in price is the dominant factor followed by limited content
ReplyDelete8:54: That is not true. As 7:35 points out, the Las Vegas paper is still quite good, and last year during a trip through the Midwest, I saw several papers that were still quite good--and had actual, honest-to-goodness real estate sections with--gasp!--lists of homes open on Sunday, not to mention local sections (not just a couple of pages).
ReplyDeleteI still subscribe because I get an apparently secret rate, but there's only one other subscriber on my block, and he's talking about giving it up.
The only problem with not taking the joke of a paper we have (and if it weren't for the Nebraska Furniture Mart ads, there'd not be enough to the paper to keep it from blowing away on windy days) is I'd then have to rely on the local TV news, and there's even less to those broadcasts than there is to the paper.
84% of residents in the metro don't live in KCMO and 25% of those who do live north of the river, which more closely resembles Overland Park than it does Brookside.
ReplyDeleteThe Star "news" consists mostly of:
The latest idea that the KCPS is about to turn the corner on accreditation.
The renaissance of downtown including the new tech start-up by some 25 year-old from Wamego, Kansas.
The fact that Kansas state government is still in the red.
Shilling for some KCMO government agency about what a great job they're doing.
Why you may be a racist and not even know it and other diversity pablum.
Some obscure insider story from the KCMO city hall.
And whatever else the Chamber or some other organization offers in their most recent press release.
The only actual news is from wire services and other actual newspapers throughout the country.
Pretty sad offerings.
Someone finally got it right!
ReplyDeleteAll you liberal rags....the liberalism you promote, I got news for you...it ain't workin'!
The Star has always been a slanted, liberal newspaper but they did have some good columnists and reporters. Now they have only a few good reporters, no decent columnists and they seem just angry at everyone who dares disagree with them. Yael has always been that way but it seems the entire newspaper is just angry at the world.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I was with the guy when he talked about how the paper has shrunk in quantity and quality of content while the price has skyrocketed. And how its best and most able reporters and columnists have left, either through "buy-outs" and early retirement, or to more secure and greener pastures elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteBut in the final analysis, he's just another right-wing ideologue, angry that the whole world doesn't see things his way, so he's gonna teach 'em a lesson!
6:47 PM
ReplyDeleteFacts found in the Kansas City Star? Where? I must be missing something. Everything in the Star is hyper, hysteria and spin. Not one fact that I've seen in the recent five years.
I can point out many lies, distortions from the writings of Lynn Horsley and her group, alone. The paper isn't what it used to be and nobody wants to read, or pay for, what its become.
With all the layoffs, long form in-depth investigative journalism has suffered the most. Older experienced reporters have left for greener pastures in corporate communication...and I don't blame them. The culture at the Star is negative, demoralizing and corrosive yet, scandals still happen but who is effectively reporting on them? Politicians and corporate big-wigs get nearly a free pass. It's a disservice to Kansas City and a shadow of the fine publication that The Star once was.
ReplyDelete