It’s kind of a good news, bad news thing.
The bad news is the Kansas City Star continues to let quality journalists go as it attempts to save costs.
But the good news is the University of Missouri-Kansas City is hiring some of them.
Last February, Bottom Line reported that John Martellaro, who spent 14 years as a reporter at the Kansas City Star, was named the new director of media relations at UMKC City. Martellaro had left the newspaper in 2000.
And now Martellaro has told BLC that Star Editor Kady McMaster has been named the new senior communications specialist for Advancement at the university. Stacy Downs, former Star features reporter, joined UMKC last week as its senior PR specialist.
McMaster, a University of Kansas graduate, had been with the McClatchy-owned newspaper since 1987 when she joined as a reporter. In 1994 she was named editor of the Star Magazine, and a year, later she was named assistant features editor.
In 2007 McMaster was named Lifestyle Editor in the Star’s Features Dept. where she supervised reporters, section editors, the lifestyle columnist and the award-winning Web site for moms (Mom2Mom) and its accompanying weekly print page in the features section.
Downs had been with the Star for 17 years and left the paper this month as its House + Home Editor and Features Reporter where she edited and wrote for the Sunday House + Home section each week, and created story packages for other sections of the paper including The Kansas City Star Magazine, FYI and the front page. During her Star career the University of Missouri journalism graduate covered a variety of beats including home design, parenting, crime and city government.
In her new position Downs will handle PR duties for the four Hospital Hill schools: Dentistry, Medical, Nursing and Pharmacy as well as the School of Biological Sciences and the Office of Research and Economic Development.
GOLDEN YEARS GONE
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much of a future for anyone at The Star anymore. The “golden years” are long gone.
REPORTER AND PR ARE DIFFERENT
Being a reporter and being a PR person are completely different skill sets so I don’t know why these hires would be viewed as good for the University. One or both may turn out to be the next John Landsberg but the odds are against it. If they weren’t considered to be entry level candidates then those doing the hiring didn’t understand the jobs they were hiring for. I hope they didn’t overlook candidates who had established a Media Relations career path. With bylines comes celebrity status. Since I don’t know either of these young journalists I could be wrong but speaking in generalities I think I am right.
JOURNOS MAKE BEST PR PEOPLE
I always laugh when I read people outside the industry question whether journalists make good PR people. In fact, they make the best PR people. Why? Because they understand the mind of a reporter and what makes a good story. That’s crucial and some PR people just don’t get it. It’s instinct combined with years of experience interviewing people and writing about them.
While PR is much more than being in the media, it is a large part of the public’s perception of a company or industry. Yes, a company that hires a former journalist for PR, makes a wise move. (20 years in journalism, six years in PR).
Heather, in most cases I agree with you that journalists make very good PR people.They know what is newsworthy, but many lack people skills needed to pitch stories effectively. Also, while I have found some print journalists are excellent writers, the same cannot always be said about radio and TV reporters.