Thank you, and goodbye

news_world_AP11071005361This is my last post on MediaKC.

I started this blog about three years ago when I worked at the Lawrence Journal-World. I thought people in Kansas City should have more information about the media in town, from personnel moves to controversies and awards and important stories. I walked a fine line in reporting these things while working at a newspaper I’d inevitably have to write about.

It’s been almost two years since I moved to Chicago to take a news job, and I think it’s time to hang up the keyboard. Continue reading →

Billionaire John Pritzker cheers KC in letter to the editor

(I’m back for a quick post)

Everyone loves Kansas City. That’s the takeaway from the love showered on the city during the World Series. (Except Joe Buck.)

That includes billionaire John Pritzker, a scion of the Pritzker fortune of Hyatt Hotel fame. The real estate mogul, who’s worth $2.2 billion, according to Forbes, wrote a letter to the editor published in The Star last week, lauding KC and its people. An image of the letter’s been widely shared on social media.

I am a San Franciscan and a Giants fan who attended game six of the World Series in Kansas City.

Let me just say that never in my life have I enjoyed being so terribly outnumbered and, by evening’s end, absolutely clubbed into submission.

From the moment I hit the parking lot at Kauffman Stadium in my Giants gear, folks made a point to walk over, introduce themselves, welcome us to Kansas City and wish us good luck. People offered to buy us beer and brats.

Most mind-bending was the woman who apologized for the lopsided score.

My wife and our friends spent the better part of our flight home marveling at the generosity and warmth of the Royals fans and wondering whether we’d dropped into a parallel universe.

At some point, I recall announcing to my wife that I was prepared to move to Kansas City as soon as possible.

They refer to your part of the country as “flyover states.” Folks should make a point to actually drop in to Kansas City for a heaping helping of an America most people only dream about.

Take that, Joe Buck.

Feast Magazine comes to KC

Feast_March2012_pg01_covFeast Magazine, a foodie and cocktail mag published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is set to release its first Kansas City edition Sept. 28.

Why KC?

“It’s the new ‘foodie’ town,” said publisher Cat Neville. “It’s the excellent people in the kitchen, behind the bar and the KC-based products that make this city rich. I want to highlight every part of it.”

The magazine has planned on entering the KC market since it debuted four years ago, a news release said. The inaugural edition will focus on Kansas City’s new hot spots and classic joints, and cover events like the Paris of the Plains Cocktail Festival.

Feast is celebrating its entry to Kansas City with a launch party Sept. 27 at the Knife & Pork event at Knuckleheads in the East Bottoms.

Feast will be available at select newsstands around Kansas City, and via subscriptions.

Feast’s introduction to KC comes on the heels of Edible Kansas City’s attempts to crowdfund its next four issues. But its GoFundMe campaign has disappeared from the Web. I’ve asked the magazine what’s going on and will update if I learn more.

6News Lawrence gets new logo

Wow! Check it out: 6News Lawrence has a new logo, and if there’s any doubt who owns the station, it’s gone.

10387201_912315268797166_3191336910181878598_nThe station’s logo now shows it as Wow! 6, a nod to its owner, Wide Open West, or Wow! The company purchased Channel 6 and all of Sunflower Broadband from Knology in 2011. Previously it had been owned by the World Company.

 

Karen Dillon joins LJWorld

Karen Dillon has landed in Lawrence. The veteran investigative reporter has been hired by the Journal-World.

Dillon most recently freelanced for the Pitch, where she wrote several important stories, including how a Kansas City police officer accused of fatally shooting a Kansas City firefighter may have violated department regulations.

Dillon worked at The Star for more than 20 years before being laid off. She did a stint as a producer at KSHB earlier this year.

Dillon starts at the Journal-World Sept. 2.

Traffic reporter Kacie McDonnell joining KSHB

Via Kacie McDonnell/FacebookSoon to join KSHB is meteorologist traffic reporter Kacie McDonnell, lately of Philadelphia’s FOX29.

She’s moving to Kansas City to join her boyfriend, Chiefs quarterback Aaron Murray. I don’t know where Murray is on the depth chart, but I do know his brother recently placed first in “The Bachelor.”

A former Miss Pennsylvania, McDonnell spent the last two years at FOX29, and graduated from Villanova.