Kansas City Star Parent Company Pulls Journalism Partnership After Criticism

Today that Kansas City Star isn't publishing a paper because nobody wants or needs a Saturday paper.

Sadly, the news is getting worse for the local dead-tree outfit. 

To wit . . . 

THE KANSAS CITY STAR PARENT COMPANY RETREATS FROM AN IMPORTANT COLLABORATION AFTER HEDGE FUND NEWSPAPER OWNERSHIP WAS ATTACKED!!!

Here are the basics sent our way by KICK-ASS TKC READERS who love journalism and bloggy goodness . . .

McClatchy—which owns dozens of newspapers across fourteen states, and which was acquired by Chatham Asset Management, a hedge fund, last year—will not participate in the next Report for America cycle, Report for America confirmed to CJR. Sources tell CJR that McClatchy’s decision came in response to Waldman’s hedge-fund criticism. Kristin Roberts, McClatchy’s senior vice president of news, would not confirm the company’s plans, and did not respond to questions concerning the company’s reaction to Waldman’s hedge-fund critiques. In an email to CJR, Roberts wrote, “Part of the rationale behind our partnership with RFA was extending coverage. We have shown that we can and should and these beats are now shifting into the core.”

We won't speculate about motives . . .

But we suspect that hedge fund bosses aren't willing to suffer the lectures of college professors and journalism purists.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .

McClatchy to decline future Report for America participation, following hedge-fund critiques

In June, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by Steven Waldman-the president and co-founder of Report for America (RFA), the journalism organization that pairs early-career journalists with news outlets that have identified critical gaps in their own coverage-titled "How to stop hedge funds from wrecking local news."