BOTTOM LINE EXCLUSIVE!!
Kansas City Star employees received official word today from President and Publisher Mi-Ai Parrish that another round of employee cutbacks will be implemented along with a one-week employee furlough at the McClatchy-owned newspaper.
Parrish, who took over Publisher duties in June of last year, noted in a memo to staffers today that “Financial news has been improving, but at a slower-than-hoped-for-pace.”
She then informed them that she will implement a one-week furlough for most employees and all senior team members for the first half of the year.
“We also will be eliminating seven staffed positions across The Star in addition to several open positions,” she said, noting that affected employees have been notified.
Parrish says the newspaper had a “decent fourth quarter” but “the economy hasn’t turned the corner yet.”
She wrote in her memo that she understands how weary Star employees have become over the ongoing cutbacks the past several years that have left the newspaper with about half its employees.
“Job eliminations and furloughs are difficult and disruptive, and it’s not a step I take lightly,” she says. “I understand the weariness that many of you feel with this news.”
She says the Kansas City Star still has an important mission to fulfill.
“Your resilience and commitment to the community we serve continue to be a humbling reminder of the importance of our mission,” she concluded.
You’re being had. This isn’t a real memo. Someone at The Star is gaming you.
Which, of course, you positively deserve.
Thanks for fact-checking.
It’s time to bring back Art Brisbane! Getting rid of extraneous baggage like Yael T. Aboulahkah might go a long way too… Cutting costs and reducing one of the old guard who brought the paper to it’s knees!
Did you happen to see where Hearne stole this item from here without giving any attribution to this site for breaking the story?
It doesn’t seem right. Isn’t he supposed to be a journalist?
Amazing how those left at the Star still shill for Obama while the economic climate the president has created is partially responsible for the demise of jobs there.
First of all, now that you’ve opened up your site to comments, may I suggest it’s lame to let people to write under the obviously fake, well-known names of others. Names like, “Hearne” for example.
It’s a pretty safe bet I didn’t write that I’d stolen something from you. Actually, it sounds like something you wrote.
And being one of several people who got copied on an email is not what I would call an “exclusive” by the way.
I got that email the same way you did, from someone at the Star. A number of people shared it with me since I worked there 16 years and know many of them.
Unlike you, I also interviewed some Star staffers about how the layoffs were received. And I named the lone reporter who got laid off.
I didn’t see any of that in your “exclusive.”
Honestly, your tactics never change. When you were a gossip columnist you simply took items that were already printed by others and then expanded on them, and often did your best to make your co-workers look bad in the process. It did not endear you to many of the real journalists at the Star.
Today, the area’s leading bloggers refuse to link to anything on your site. See a pattern here?
Am I supposed to reject comments because people want to be anonymous? Obviously, you did not write those comments as “Hearn.” Who are the people who comment on your site–SmartMan, Harley, Hot Carl? Are those their real names?
As you have gotten older you have become a real legend in your own mind.
OK, let’s play…
As a columnist I did follow up on news stories and often was able to report more detail than what came out in the early reporting by doing some digging.
For example, when a reorter wrote that LaMar’s Donuts closed because of the owner’s health problems, I checked with the Health Department and learned LaMar’s had been shut down for repeated health code violations. In that case, you are correct; the reporter who messed up on the initial reporting did not like that I’d corrected her reporting.
As for comments people using fake names, I don’t have a problem with that. But it’s silly to allow someone to choose a fake name that belongs to somebody well known like KC Mayor Sly James and post under that.
That used to happen on Gateway City and it hurt their credibility. Leaving someone’s name up as me when it’s obviously not is misleading Especially when it appears you wrote it.
Nobody cares who quoted some email first that went out to hundreds of people – including you and me.
Obviously, I did some actual reporting and interviewed people at the Star and reported who it was that was laid off. Equally obviously you didn’t.
Either way, it was hardly an “exclusive.”
As for sites linking to KC Confidential, why don’t you look on Alexa.com – Tony’s favorite yardstick – and see where Bottom Line ranks compared to KCC?
You’re more than 2 million places behind us in the world rankings. And KC Confidential has 200 sites linking in to your 90.
In other words, more than double.
Cheers!
You obviously have a hard on for Hearne and that ‘lengend in your own mind’ remark shows your true ignorance.
Wake up and smell your armpits John.
And who would have thought this was a fake name and fake email address?
Hearne … You wanna play? Really? In a forum where you don’t have the power to delete my posts?
I’m your Huckleberry.
(Every now and then, when I get bored, I log on to Hearne’s site, and point out, with concrete examples, how he was and is a pathetic excuse for a journalist. When he was in his prime, Hearne was responsible for more corrections than the rest of The Star’s staff combined, despite the best efforts of the copy desk to ward off his constant assault on facts. This is one of my all-time favorites.)
CORRECTIONS
The Kansas City Star
Wrong identification
The landscaper for a downtown condominium project was incorrectly identified in Hearne Christopher’s March 20 column. Landscaping at The View, 600 Admiral Blvd., is headed up by Buck Buchan, owner of Buck Buchan Landscape Design in Kansas City. Former Kansas City Chiefs star Buck Buchanan, who was incorrectly identified as the landscaper, died in 1992. The Star apologizes for the error.
Nice try, John or is it Huckleberry?
OK, I’ll still play.
That was a correction, everybody has them. However, if you check, you’ll see that Buchanan was identified by the developer of a large downtown condo project, not by me.
I didn’t catch it, nor did the FYI editor, the FYI copy desk, nor the editor of the paper who was copied on my columns in advance.
Further, the Sunday Star features section is printed in advance on Wednesdays and distributed throughout the newsroom and sports. And nobody noticed or caught the developer’s error until after the newspaper was printed. He sent a letter of apology btw.
Happy now?
Huckleberry? Your paranoia is starting to come out. Whoever wrote this was another person whose comments you disliked and likely deleted them on your blog. You do it all the time. Don’t blame me. People who trash you seem to know you well and simply don’t like you. That’s not my problem.
Now you’re playing guessing games about me deleting somebody on KC Confidential’s Web site?
Fascinating.
That another “exclusive”?
Not a guessing game. Are you honestly saying you have not deleted comments on your site? Why do some of the same four commenters you have complain about their comments being deleted? Are they lying?
Still waiting for your “exclusive” about the editorial changes this week at the KC Star that were on this site Monday. Maybe you will do the traditional “Hearne follow-up” story on someone else’s story. Some things never change…