KC Star to revamp its business coverage

Assistant Managing Editor for Business Chris Lester notes that the Kansas City Star will have a number of changes to its business section. The changes will be unveiled in the upcoming weeks.

Lester writes in Tuesday’s paper: “Many newspapers are cutting back or eliminating stock and mutual fund listings altogether simply to save paper, and so money. Open editorial positions are going unfilled. And at least one paper has taken the drastic step of combining business news behind another section of the newspaper.

“To my mind, such steps are short term and self-defeating when they are driven purely by expense-saving considerations. To be sure, change is constant and accelerating in all industries, including media. But unless changes are designed as part of a long-term growth strategy, they will lead to no good end.

“In just a few weeks, readers of The Star will see many significant changes in the look, feel and content of the paper’s business sections. And yes, those changes will include the fourth redesign of our stock and mutual fund pages in six years, reflecting the ongoing migration of stock-quote tracking and the like to the Web. (You’ll be reading more on that soon.)

“But I assure you — our faithful and growing audience of readers — that those changes are not driven so much by short-term budget concerns as by a genuine desire to provide our readers with a more vibrant, engaging news section in an ever-changing world.

“Every day of the week the business section will have more room for news stories in the paper. Moreover, we will redouble our efforts to break news on our Web site and deliver our pushed e-mail Midday Business Report to tens of thousands of subscribers, among other electronic initiatives.

“Put simply, we are rethinking, not retreating from, our business news report. In important ways, we will in fact be expanding.”

Read more here.