Sorry state of the newspaper industry in Kansas

It simply amazes me every time I take anything more than a cursory glance at how things are going in the newspaper industry in the Sunflower State.  Amazed because I just didn't think it could get much worse.

Unfortunately, for those of us still in Kansas, Gatehouse Media seems to know just how to continue to lower the bar.

Sure, I've been seeing complaints on Facebook — a scourge in its own right — about The Salina Journal lately from residents of the Lindsborg community. It seems they've been having a nightmare of a time getting their paper, not just on time, but on the same day.

Posting after posting in this community turns to subscribers not getting their paper for the day, or in some cases, for several days.

Now, to be sure, some of these problems might fall to carriers, who are certainly paid a pittance. But that's as it's always been. Some carriers were good, some not.

However, and obviously I'm only watching as folks post comments about their particular situation, the Journal isn't helping them out much.

When subscribers call in, the response varies. No one answers on up to promises of a delivery that never comes.

Heck, I've seen postings from carriers that papers will be late, thanks to mechanical issues or some such problem. To be sure, having spent my years in the industry, I know things break. Way too often, in fact. But it's also a handy excuse.

But Salina has long had two printing presses and a multitude of problems just getting the paper out the door, never mind onto the subscribers' doorsteps. 

Now, however, Salina has gone the way of The Hays Daily News, in that its printing presses have been silenced, the printers shown the door and the task of printing the daily paper sent elsewhere. 

When the Hays presses were turned off, the paper was printed in Salina, often on the presses that came from Hays.

Now, of course, Salina and Hays are printed in Hutchinson.

Its a trend.

The Wichita Eagle is being printed in Kansas City, for example. There have been so many changes, I can't keep track of them all.

But the latest low to be struck by Gatehouse-Kansas, if I can use that moniker, is the absolute devastation of the staffing at all the Gatehouse papers, most notably the former Harris Enterprises newspaper, which included Hays, Salina, Garden City, Hutchinson and Ottawa in Kansas and Burlington in Iowa.

Gatehouse picked the group up for a song, reportedly $20 million. It had a long and deeply respected history.

The names are the same, but you can't recognize what it once was.

You see, it's the papers' skeletons that are still visible. Most still occupy the now vastly oversized buildings, considering how small staffs are.

Perusing staff listings online show a paltry reminder. The number of reporters who are working in four of the communities — Hays, Salina, Garden City and Hutchinson —now match the number of reporters we had at our peak at the Hays Daily News.

There are only six reporters shown as working at these four papers, two each at Hutchinson and Hays, and one each at Garden City and Salina. 

Salina is looking to hire a reporter, but I'm not about to suggest anyone apply. You would almost need to be magical to fit the job description. Consider:

The successful candidate, according to an advertisement, will have to cover the community news, as well as local government, as well as features. But you'll also need to cover "intense breaking news situations." No sweat, I did that for more than 30 years.

But now, you have to also post on social media, while writing "quickly under deadline pressure."

Reporting accurately is still a requirement, thankfully, but you also have to be an accomplished photographer and videographer. Well, you have to shoot "strong" photos and videos as well. 

And you must be available nights and weekends. I get that; the news doesn't schedule when it's going to happen.

But my former colleagues tell of working most days and evening, and most weekends. Sort of slave labor in some respects.

You only need some experience, at a college paper or someplace else, and be working toward a bachelor's degree.

They claim to have a competitive wage, benefits and offer time off. They don't elaborate.

But the kicker here is, if you want to apply, you send your resume to Topeka. Not Salina. They don't have a managing editor or an executive editor, and from the staff listing, no publisher, well, other than one in Topeka, who serves as publisher there and for other Gatehouse papers across the state. They do now have a general manager, one shared by Hutchinson and Hays. More cheapskateism, if you'll excuse the word.

It's also notable that Salina's staff roster lists five people in the newsroom, one of whom has already left the paper. All told there are 17 people on the Journal roster, down from perhaps more than 100 who worked there at its peak.

Garden City shows six people on their roster. Hutchinson has 20.

Hays has 11. At its peak, Hays had nearly double that in the newsroom alone. The paper overall had more than 65 employees.

I was fortunate enough to leave The HDN when it was still fairly vibrant, even though Harris shareholders had already turned their backs on the business.

In hindsight, I now look like the smartest guy around, taking my retirement months before the axe would have fallen.

I don't regret it at all.

Moving at the speed of water

There's plenty happening these days on the water front in Kansas.

That's no different than it typically is, however. It just seems there's a different perspective abounding. It's not a new one, that's for sure, but different from what I'd call normal.

You see, water policy in Kansas moves at a speed snails would be proud of. In short, it doesn't move much.

I can remember sitting in a Kansas Water Office river advisory committee meeting during what was considered a heyday in monumental water change while I was at The Hays Daily News. Well,  I should say it was a multi-year continuation of a heyday in monumental water change.

You see, I was sitting in this meeting, years after the Kansas Water Office created the river basin advisory committees, listening as someone talked about action needed to be taken to set the state on a course of water sufficiency.

I sat there, knowing that I had heard this exact message before, in an earlier meeting of the same committee. There's an old adage in the newspaper industry that there's only so many ways to write the same story over and over.

So I decided I couldn't write the same thing again, opting instead to stop attending the redundant basin advisory meetings, where advice wasn't often offered and even more rarely accepted by state powers-to-be.

It was a wise move on my part, as when I went back to those meetings — again years later — only to find they were still discussing the same things, the same solutions. Heck, even the same people were on the committees.

Why, you ask, am I dredging all of this up, when it was years ago, and likely years in the future.

Well, I chuckled a bit (or a lot) when I saw Hays city officials were agog that it had taken so long for the state's Division of Water Resources to get off the dime on Hays' plan to tap water along the Arkansas River outside Kinsley on land Hays bought long ago for the sole purpose of farming its water.

It's been a whopping four years, commissioners bemoaned of the state's inaction. And they weren't going to stand for it, heading to Topeka to lobby the governor, her lieutenant and state Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, on convincing DWR to get moving. It seems Billinger was most anxious to pressure DWR and its Chief Engineer David Barfield, but keep in mind Hays is the largest contingent of voters in Billinger's district.

But two things are at work here, and one taints the system.

First, as I've already laid out, water policy or action in Kansas moves slow.

Second, it was wrong for Hays to head to the governor or Billinger, and especially bad they suggested they might intervene.

You see, Barfield is supposed to be a protected employee, one protected — insulated — from political pressure.

And it seems like these folks just don't get that. But that's been another in a long, slow-moving effort by — you guessed it — politicians, who want to inject politics into an issue that is already difficult enough. They want to strip Barfield of that protection.

To be sure, it's fair enough for Hays to lobby DWR to get its act in gear, although they knew it was going to be a long, long time before water started flowing from Kinsley to Hays. They chose to ignore it and they should recognize that. Hays sat on the ranch water for years before even starting the task of asking for permission to build a pipeline.

I long said it would take 10 years before a drop of water headed north, even if there's not a lawsuit filed to stop it. They pooh-poohed me. But that's always been Hays' style: When they want something, they want it now. Perhaps not a bad approach for some things, but this is not one-size-fits-all situation.

The transfer of water from the R9 Ranch in Edwards County to the Schoenchen wellfield in southern Ellis County is groundbreaking, the first time the state's water-transfer act has been triggered. Plus, the request from Hays for taking an irrigation water right and turning it into a municipal water right is significant, given its so much bigger than is typically seen. It's setting precedence as well, and is something that will happen again and again as temperatures warm and pressure comes to bear on water resources here and afar, and cities flush with cash start buying up water rights. Heck, irrigators in southwest Kansas already want to avoid responsibility to save water and import it in from the Missouri River. It's still being quietly considered, never mind the huge cost

So, we have two precedent-setting situations before us.

These tasks need to be done right, and by that I mean ethically and legally.

I'm confident there will be a lawsuit, if not several, and the deep-pocketed folks behind it will press it as far as they can, likely to the Kansas Supreme Court, perhaps beyond. Activity in the halls of justice move only slightly faster than water policy.

That's why it's important for political pressure to look elsewhere. Legislators have plenty else to do, fixing problems facing Kansas. State officials have plenty else to do, given the finance problems Kansas continues to face.

I'm also confident city folks have plenty else to do. If they don't think so, perhaps they need to take a closer look at their city. There's always plenty of work left to do.

And let's face it, DWR has plenty of other work to do, in addition to the routine work it's charged to do with a reduced staff that came about when Republicans decided to destroy the state budget.

Something's gotta give when workload increases and the number of people there to do the job doesn't keep pace. Throw in unneeded interference and the task slows down even more.