Kansas City Star Cutbacks: Cowtown Ready For Life Without The Daily Newspaper?!?!



Strident readers and critics might argue that we've been without a daily newspaper for the past 12 years.

Meanwhile, it's getting harder for supporters of dead-tree media to deny the fate of the publication.

Check this chart for an illustrative look:



One of the best TKC readers who keeps track of this market news offered his perspective:

It's a story "sold short" . . . TKC readers say: Thanks TKC! Ka-ching!

And the question of the profit motive is really at the crux of the issue.

If/when the newspaper stops functioning as a for-profit endeavor it becomes something else entirely . . . More like just another political pamphlet and NOT a place where the ENTIRE community can engage, learn and debate.

Like it or not, and I don't, social media offers something closer than a mainstream Kansas City public square or forum than the pages of the newspaper.

But I digress . . . Check more deets about the cold hard numbers that mostly serve to prove critics right:

Simply Wall St: Those Who Purchased McClatchy (NYSEMKT:MNI) Shares Five Years Ago Have A 92% Loss To Show For It

Market Watch: Newspaper publisher McClatchy's stock drops after swinging to loss, 'liquidity challenge' warning

The Wrap: McClatchy Seeks Federal Bailout of Pension Fund

And so we suggest that this isn't just a question of newspaper quality but a fundamental shift in the market place in much the same way that CDs are nearly impossible to find and only guys over 40 still collect vinyl records.

Accordingly, after six weeks Kansas City will lose it's biggest "daily" newspaper as dead-tree media transitions into just another website/blog that also prints some of their content as an afterthought.

Developing . . .

Comments

  1. I love my FB groups. Some are silly, some are important but they're all more enjoyable than the KC newspaper.

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  2. Ding dong, the witch is dead!!!

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  3. Not many will miss the Star, except maybe older folks, and then only for reasons of nostalgia.
    It hasn't been a serious newspaper for years, and in the recent past has deteriorated even further into a rah rah press release rag for downtown, KCMO city hall, and "developers.
    And the editorial board is so far out of touch with the majority of metro residents, that it's endless negativity and wild-eyed support of fringe causes and individuals have made them more suitable to Brooklyn than KC.
    They influence nothing or anyone.
    The Star long ago abandoned all the very good reasons for a local newspaper to be important.
    A complete collapse will be no loss at all.

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  4. Jaymar Wongvajirapadiki11/15/19, 6:21 AM

    "As of March 31, 2019, the latest measurement date of the plan, it held assets of $1.32 billion ..., Still the plan was underfunded by approximately $535 million as of March 31, 2019."
    These employees must be receiving some healthy pensions and McClatchy wants the government/taxpayer to bail their pension fund out. The return for the taxpayer will be less than the 92% loss for the stockholders. Do not think mismanagement requires taxpayer bailout.
    Fake news = fake pensions.

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  5. And . . . the Star is probably McClatchy's most profitable paper. That tells you all you need to know about the future of the company.

    It can't die soon enough. Terrible excuse for a newspaper.

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  6. Speaking of stocks and dividends when is the next meeting for Tony's Kansas City Shareholders?

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  7. ^^It's when Matlock is on, so you'll miss it!

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  8. ^^^ More likely during chimpys feeding time at the zoo!

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  9. ^^^Doubtful either of you two will be there since neither one of you could produce five cents hard cash between the two of you.

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  10. 6:21 comment
    Keep in mind that for years McClatchy hasn't really been contributing "full cash payments" into the pension plans.

    In lieu of hard cash, they've contributed things like real estate assets. Do you think McClatchy would place an inflated value on a real estate parcel before transferring it into a pension plan?

    McClatchy corporate insiders have known the B-day (bankruptcy) is coming for years. They've been taking a number of desperate measures to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. Slashing employee staffs, selling off assets, engaging in corporate payday loans, purposely underfunding employee/retiree pension plans, etc.

    For those remaining at McClatchy newspapers, the final "adding insult to injury" will be when McClatchy corporate in California issues them an electronic pink-slip and notification that they have pennies-on-the-dollar in their pension account.

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  11. ^^and yet nobody of any consequence or substance cares. Weird.

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  12. ^^^ you mean like with every single one of your posts Captain Weirdo?

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  13. ^^You care. You read everything I write. You live for it. You're a fan. Nice try.

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  14. 11:15 Good comment. You did forget to mention the Wednesday ads issue. My puppy training paper will be missed, as well as the bird cage lining.

    The scariest comment here is the first, where the person says (she, I assume, being the sexist I am) their news source if FaceBook.

    It does illustrate the digital dumbing down of America. Math is racisssss!

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  15. Just another Wall Street Pump and Dump.

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  16. I walked into a Conveniece store the other day.
    Someone had a newspaper they were going to buy.
    Three teens yelled at the customers and told the would be buyer they were horrible human beings for being anti Green.
    Third time that week I saw “Newspaper Shaming”.
    I guess it works.
    The lady dropped her paper and her Geritol and The teens forced her to genuflect in front of a statue of AOC.

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