Kansas City Kansan

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:38pm on Monday, January 5th, 2009

On December 31, 2008, the Kansas City Kansan announced that it will go online-only starting January 10, 2009:

The Kansas City Kansan – established in 1921 – is taking a bold step into the future on Jan. 10, when it will end its 87-year history as a print newspaper and switching to an entirely digital publication.

The Kansan will launch a revamped Web site on Jan. 7.

Founded on Jan. 31, 1921, by U.S. Sen. Arthur Capper, the Kansan was for decades the only daily newspaper serving exclusively Kansas City, Kan. and the other towns of Wyandotte County.

Meanwhile, KansasCityKansan.com reaches nearly 7,000 local residents monthly in its current configuration.

The new KansasCityKansan.com Web site will offer greater opportunity for reader participation through comments and posting their own news and announcements. Businesses and civic organizations, for example, will be able to post their own press releases. Readers will find it easy to share community photos or their own stories and opinions.

“This is not going to be a newspaper turned into an online product,” Kansan General Manager Drew Savage said. “It’s going to have a completely different look.”

The format of the site will be more like a blog, making it easier for readers to scan through all the stories from a particular day and find the ones they wish to read more carefully.

Without the cumbersome tasks of page design and layout, and other duties associated with print, the online staff will be free to find more and varied stories to post online. Without press deadlines to contend with, the staff will be able to keep up a continual flow of news every day, publishing breaking news and information as it comes in.

“The approach we’re taking with the new Kansan site is a proven method for making news more interesting and engaging online,” said Howard Owens, director of digital publishing for GateHouse Media, the parent company of the Kansan. “We’ve found that readers really enjoy this format and will visit the site more frequently because of it.”

The Kansan staff is being reduced from eight people to four as a cost savings measure during the transition.

Owens will work closely with the staff over the coming months to help with the transition to an online-only approach to news. He said the new site should quickly see its audience double within months of the switch.