Some years back, when I was a young reporter for The Kansas City Times, I was visiting in San Francisco and, while in the City by the Bay, I stopped by the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle, and I had the opportunity to meet the City Editor.
I recall discussing with this man, who was generous with his time, the daily column he wrote, which appeared on the Chronicle’s front page. I thought that was pretty cool, this experienced editor sharing has thoughts on daily news right there on Page One, in front of God and all of San Francisco.
I suppose that now, in the Internet Age, we would just call such a column a Blog. But back in those days, a front page column by the individual who largely shaped coverage of the day’s news was unusual, and it certainly impressed me. After all, who had a better perspective than the City Editor.
Well, I want to share with KCTribune readers a few improvements to our web site that we plan to make as we approach the Trib’s first birthday, which will be on July 4. It seems hard to believe that we soon will have been publishing for year, but that is in fact the case. Tempus Fugit!
Besides the daily news column, which I will write, we also will become more energetic in pursuit of advertising sales, the traditional main revenue source for newspapers as well as other news media. So far, KCTribune has been a money loser, in part because we actually pay several editorial staffers and have sold only a few ads. Of course, we all have to eat, and that costs money.
Debbie Coleman-Topi, an experienced journalist who has been writing for the Tribune for several months, has expressed an interest in working on the ad sales front simply because she knows how important it is to the future of this publication. A friend of Debbie’s, Charlotte Melson, and a long-time acquaintance of mine, Lorna Ryman, also will help with ad sales.
When we launched the Trib a year ago, I thought of it as kind of a Time, Newsweek or U.S. News and World Report, in other words as a weekly publication. That pace seemed to meet our goals and objectives, as well as our budget limitations.
However, the immediacy and timeliness of the Internet has convinced me that we can increase both the effectiveness and readership of the Trib by becoming, at least partly, a publication with new content every day. That is where my commentary column will come in. I plan to write the column--which will begin with our next edition--at least five days a week.
The rest of the news, reviews and columns that now appear in KCTribune will continue as before. So we will be, in effect, a weekly publication that we hope is worth checking out every day.
And we hope you will do just that--and that you will patronize our advertisers!
Join the Tribune in celebrating the beginning of our second year--one in which each issue will be filled with stories that define Kansas City.
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