"What's the deal with you and The Star?"

Perhaps my very first post of this blog at the beginning of October should have explained my changed job situation. However, I couldn’t quite write it because I was having a hard time nailing down how I really felt. So I tried at various times, but it kept getting longer and branching into so many things that shape and effect journalism today.
  So … I realized I couldn’t (and didn’t need to) get it all into one post. Here’s part I of “What’s the deal with you and The Star?” (I don’t know how many other parts there will be, but it won’t be longer than “Roots” or anything like that.)
  Six weeks after being told my position had been “eliminated” at The Kansas City Star, here we are at Halloween, my favorite holiday. The World Series has ended, a new president soon will be elected, college basketball is around the corner.
  I’ve never before looked at my future and felt so much sense of exhilaration, eagerness, promise, opportunity … when, perhaps, there could be as much reason to feel uncertainty, frustration and worry.
   It’s not that I’m devoid of the latter three by any means. It’s just that I think that we – the very little “me” and the enormous industry of journalism – are going to figure this all out.

  I started working at The Kansas City Star in the fall of 1996. Almost simultaneously, I became a free-lancer for ESPN.com. The sports editor at The Star then, Dinn Mann, had boundless creativity and ambition, and he wanted us to strive to be as good as any sports section in the country. To never think, “Oh, we’re just Kansas City.”
  Part of his vision was diversity in coverage. I was the assignment editor for college sports at The Star then, but Dinn also allowed me the opportunity to write for the paper. Space, resources and time were given to me to cover women’s sports.
   Mike Fannin came in as Dinn’s assistant, and eventually took over as sports editor of The Star. The creative energy continued full force with Mike, and I also continued writing. The only “problem” was that I was, essentially, doing three jobs: as assignment editor for The Star, writing for The Star and writing for ESPN.com.
   After five years of this, I needed something to change. So I went to Mike in the spring of 2001 and asked to write full-time at The Star and leave editing. He didn’t “have” to make that happen, but he did. I will always be grateful to him for that.
  For The Star, I have covered events such as the Women’s Final Four, the Women’s World Cup, the U.S. Women’s Open and the Solheim Cup. The newspaper took a leadership role in its commitment to women’s sports. There were so many times over the last dozen years I felt immense gratitude that The Star didn’t just give lip service to diversity of coverage. The paper consistently made it happen _ when plenty of bigger papers didn’t. It made me very proud to work for a place like that.
   However, at the same time, my responsibilities at ESPN.com grew over the years, too. The 2008 NCAA Tournament was the 12th year in a row I covered the event both for The Star and ESPN.com.
   The work for the two always has dovetailed but been quite different. ESPN.com provided a much bigger audience that knew a lot about women’s basketball. And with the “unlimited” space of the Web and a more flexible editorial outlook, I could do many different things as a writer.
   For The Star, though, I did the equivalent of “beat-writer” work, focusing mainly on Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri women’s basketball. I also covered men’s and women’s golf, Olympic sports and filled in with coverage of men’s college sports. All of it was gratifying, challenging and helped me become a better writer and reporter.
    But one night at the NCAA Tournament last season, it was nearing 4 a.m. and I was finishing my eighth story of the day between my two media outlets. I had written golf-section stories earlier in the month and covered the Big 12 tournament. I was preparing for the Olympics, so I knew there would be no break after the Women’s Final Four.
   And I thought again, as I had in 2001, “Something has to change.”
   I loved my work for The Star, but I knew I wanted to focus more on ESPN.com. I had wanted to do this for a while, but it really was clear to me that night.
   ESPN as a multi-faceted media giant has done an enormous amount for women’s sports. That company’s commitment has grown a great deal in my 12 years affiliated with ESPN.com.
   But I just didn’t know when ESPN.com would reach a point where I’d do enough work for them to be able to leave The Star, which these last dozen years has accounted for the bulk of my living expenses, all my medical/insurance benefits and much of my travel expenses.
   Then this summer, The Star – reacting to difficulties industry-wide – had its first layoffs in company history. One of them was my good friend, neighbor and respected colleague Howard Richman, who’d been with the paper 24 years and covered Kansas State. Another was Gene Wolowski, who tirelessly answered phones and did so many other things in the office I couldn’t even begin to name them all.
   Sports departments are like family, or at least it’s been that way at The Star. Seeing truly beloved and highly valued co-workers such as Howard and Gene “removed” from the family was devastating to the rest of us. It seemed unreal. It still does.
   Furthermore, when Howard’s position as K-State beat writer was eliminated, it was pretty clear to me that if the newspaper had another round of layoffs, my position had to be “on the chopping block.”
   So I can’t say I was stunned when two weeks after I returned from the Summer Games in China, I was informed my job – covering women’s basketball, Olympic sports and men’s/women’s golf _ had been eliminated.
   I admit there was a gallows-humor side of this for me. I really was ready to move on from The Star … but, of course, I wanted it to be on my terms. I jokingly told friends it was a little like when you love somebody but you know you’ve outgrown the relationship and you think, “I’ve got to figure out a way to leave” … but then that person makes the move and leaves you first.
   What does this all mean? I have to see how my role at ESPN.com may change and what else I may need to do as I continue my career. There is a chance I may do some free-lance work in the future for The Star. I still have the utmost respect and affection for the paper and it’s really in a bind now in trying to cover a lot of things, including women’s sports, with a shrinking staff, far less resources, depleted advertising revenue and declining subscriptions.
   And what’s happening to The Star is happening to newspapers everywhere. This is an industry in crisis, as are so many others.
   Yet … I believe things will work out. It will take time, and many of us who “grew up” in the newspaper business have had to learn new skills and think about different “models” for our careers. But none of those challenges are going to stop me from writing about women’s sports.
    I’ll acknowledge that part of me didn’t want to write ANY of this in this blog … it seems too personal, too much information. And who really cares besides my family and friends?
   However, ultimately, I wrote it because you need to know my story is far from unique. Reporters across the country are facing these changes and trying to figure out how to continue their careers.
   All we can ask from readers is that you stick with us as we adapt, and that you let the entities we write for know that you’re reading and you expect a certain quality to the product.
   We need you.

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