A challenge to the Star

Down in little old Springfield, Missouri, the local paper, the Springfield News-Leader, has come out swinging in the newspaper wars with a just-announced plan for their paper:

We're giving you more on Feb. 16

I was pleasantly surprised.  Here's some of the details:

Today, we are kicking off a campaign to tell you, our readers, about some exciting changes coming to the News-Leader every day starting Feb. 16.

As we continue our transformation as a leading news and information company, we are giving you MORE — at least 68 pages more each week in our print edition.

I hear from a lot of readers and I always appreciate their feedback. One thing I consistently hear is that you like our product, but want more information, more content, more local and national news, more sports. And starting Feb. 16, we will consistently give you at least 68 more pages of content each week.

We will use the next two weeks to promote the changes we are planning. But I wanted to give you some insights today — so as our valued readers, you have the inside story.

You have told us local news is more important, so we are giving you more local news — dedicating the entire first section to local news. We are giving you an expanded local business section every Sunday. We have invited a panel of local business experts to give us insights into the local business scene.

We are giving you more watchdog reporting. Amos Bridges, one of our leading experts on investigative reporting and open records, will be moving into this newly created position. Look for his reports each Sunday and Tuesday.

We are dedicating Page 2A to digital content and social media, what’s trending and what happened that is causing a buzz.

And we are giving you more news about your community, your schools and your neighbors — with content from the city, foundations, the library and several others in the community page.

We are also giving you more sports from your favorite Missouri college and pro teams.

It goes on from there.

The thing is, newspapers have to do something.  The thing nearly any media outlet--be they newspaper, online site, whatever--has virtually GOT to be a multi-media site. They've got to post articles, local, national and international but what really makes a former newspaper to stand out are the local stories, local writing. If a newspaper hasn't got that, what have they got? How would they be different than others?  

The fact is, they wouldn't. They wouldn't be any different.

So they have to do local stories, local color. And that travels well to online and video, or it can, if covered and covered well.

So anyway, this looks like quite a commitment and ambitious attempt on the part of this smaller paper. Who knows where it will go.  The thing is, I wouldn't think expanding the paper would be the way to go but being more ambitious, now that I think is what is needed. Instead of shrinking and shrinking and shrinking the paper and staff, which can lead nowhere but to lower interest from possible readers, somehow giving more stories, especially more local stories, is the way to go.

And that patently hasn't been where the Star has been headed the last several years.

Heck, for the last 4 decades.

Where we came from, where we're going

I remember when it used to be important, really, to sit down in the evening, at the end of each work day, and watch the evening, national news.

It wasn't that long ago.

But over time, the news has gotten far more "entertaining" and so, far less and less important.

Now, the evening news is very likely to have YouTube videos, showing about what some crazy cat--literally, a feline--did in their owner's back yard recently.

And then Fox "News" came along, shortly after the Republicans did away with the "Fairness Doctrine" so we could and would hear both sides of a story and one side wouldn't do all day, inflammatory commentary as the Fox stations do now.

And the local news?

Why, it got fluffier and fluffier until now, today, it's like cotton candy--mostly air.  Air and sugar.

And where are we going now? Is there any hope of it getting and better in the future?

I think we all know the answer to that one.

The biggest trend in outgoing news and incoming "staying informed" on our part--that of the citizen in the US and world--is that we've gone from desktop computers to laptops and there was a great deal of information out there and sure, there still is.

But now, now we're going on to our little cell phones, with all that same capability of the bigger computers but most people just use them to entertain themselves even further. The younger the person, the more attached they are to their mobile device--mostly phones--with videos and Tweets and that's about it.

I don't hold out hope for the coming generations.

I think they look to be very well-intended, well-meaning, empathetic, open-minded people with very little awareness of what's going on in their government and so, where their country and world is headed.

I hope they can and do prove me very, very wrong.

Kansas City: a train city

Of all the things I enjoy about this city--the arts, the people, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the new Bloch Gallery, the Kemper Museum of Contepmorary Art, the Country Club Plaza, Loose Park, Mill Creek Park, the symphony, the new Kauffman Center, some of the restaurants (like Carmen's in Brookside with their bisteca modiga and all the tapas at La Bodega, etc., etc) and Union Station and Liberty Memorial and plenty of the architecture, one of the things I love the most is the sound of the lonesome train whistle. You can hear it from the Plaza to Midtown , of course, to downtown and out to Waldo and even in suburban Lee's Summit. It's outstanding. I love that we're a river town and always have been but you can only hear that we're a train town--or city. It's great. It pierces the night. And morning. That lonesome wail. You either get it--and like it--or you don't. Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

Music night...

I'm so old, I remember when YouTube didn't have this good a screen clarity on its videos. What an improvement.

Facebook and Pandora--both--on the same day?

What is this about? What's with both Facebook and Pandora making changes--in the case of Facebook, big changes--on the same day? At least Pandora's is appealing. Facebook, in the meantime, is confusing, at least, still has the same ugly, ugly sign-in page and what you're looking at keeps flipping up to the top WHILE YOU'RE READING so you can never remain stationary. It should do wonders for being, having and attaining attention deficit disorders. So it goes. One thing about computers and all thing on the web, nothing will remain the same for very long.

I'm so old...

...I remember when you didn't have to close the two boxes of options that popped up on YouTube videos, one for the RealPlayer option, the other an advertisement. THAT old.

I'm so old...

...I remember when YouTube didn't offer an "automatic play" option on our "favorites" list. THAT old. (I will say, this feature is WAY overdue. I'd looked for it for quite some time).

Women performers

Sure, men can write magnificent pieces, like this one.

But give it to a woman and...

wow.

What pathos.

They can... what?  Knock it out of the ballpark?

Give it so much more depth and feeling?

Wow.

I have to go now.

What now? "Osama bin Laden makes scrambled eggs"?

Officials: Bin Laden home videos expected to be released

There is Adele and then there is everyone else

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Your Saturday entertainment

You gotta' see this kid

Enjoy your weekend, y'all

Your Saturday entertainment

Have a great weekend, y'all.

I'm so old...

...I remember when Pandora (www.pandora.com) and Hulu were not only free, they didn't have a membership option available--at any price.

You are the new day

                                   Happy new year, y'all

Our local video is one of the top viral videos of the year! Yeehaw!

Number 9 of the top 10 viral videos of the year!  We're on the map!

Tony, his blog and the KCMO School District

Tony at TKC does two things extremely well, at minimum.

First, the obvious, he gets out information that might otherwise be overlooked by the local media--most particularly the paper (for outsiders, that would be The Kansas City Star).  And let's face it, the local paper still does most of the hard research, interviews, stories and reporting in town.  KCUR does terrific interviews with and through the likes of Steve Kraske but his end result isn't usually the kind of ground-breaking news we need, usually, as a city and metropolitan area.  The local TV stations fall on a news nugget once in a while but usually it's the Star that breaks the big stories.

So for the things that they either can't touch--particularly if it's deemed too sensitive or racial, in particular--or don't get to, Tony's blog has become a place we can go to for 'behind the scenes' stories.  Some are purely accusational and sometimes even irresponsible in this vein but by and large, most of it has proven to be pretty good information.  You go here for the "indelicate" things you wouldn't find elsewhere.

The second thing Tony's blog does well is what I've longed for for quite a while, aloud, at home. 

I have friends who work for the Kansas City Missouri School District and I've heard plenty of stories about the fights and violence that too frequently occurred and occurs in the schools there, all over the district. 

Having heard about it, I repeatedly said it was a shame it could not or would not be on the evening news, so people could see what the teachers at these schools and the administration have to deal with.

It's simply not fair that teachers have to be expected to deal with so much, so frequently, again, repeatedly, day after day, sometimes by the same students, other times from other rowdy students.  It's nearly crazy.

How are you supposed to teach 20 to 30 students, day after day, and make progress when either right outside the classroom door or, in fact, possibly right in the classroom, you have either verbal or physical fights going on?  Good luck with that one.

And then people blame the teachers for the teaching and learning that isn't going on.

As I said above, it's just not right.

So here's where Tony has come in, of late.

Tony began, singularly, I believe, getting impromptu videos up on his blog of some of these fights at different schools.

The Star, in the past, wouldn't even refer to these fights.  Granted, the daily newspaper isn't the best venue for getting this story across but unless you were there or heard about these fights, it's as though they never existed or occurred.

So Tony, lately, is getting some videos of these fights and putting them up on his blog.

And I say kudos.  Good for you, Tony.

The only way to solve a problem is, first, to recognize it and this is a good way for the area to recognize what the situations are at these schools and what's going on.

Because of Tony's postings of these brief videos, I believe it has pushed the local TV stations to also post some of them and report on them, too.

So in his own way, Tony has been kind of ground-breaking in this area and I think good things will come of it.  We'll see.  Hopefully, one day soon, there will be fewer--or none--of these fights.

Now if he could just stop posting the "scantily-clad moon maidens."

Link:  http://www.tonyskansascity.com/