Seven Kansas City Star Jobs Cut as Newspaper Employment Falls 70%

Newspaper employment in the United States has dropped by more than 70% over the past 20 years, according to Northwestern University's Local News Initiative — and this month the Kansas City metro absorbed its share of that long decline. The Kansas City Star cut seven journalists, including an opinion editor and reporters covering the police department and Wyandotte County.

The cuts were part of a larger round of layoffs at McClatchy, the Star's parent company. The NewsGuild-CWA, the union representing many Star employees, said McClatchy eliminated 30% of its union members across 17 papers nationwide. At the Star itself, the union chapter lost 15% of its members. As of Monday, a GoFundMe campaign supporting the laid-off workers had raised just over $6,100 against a $7,000 goal.

For the affected reporters, the job losses hit accountability beats directly. "Three of these reporters are exposing corruption, secrecy and missteps inside the county surrounding KC, and one re-established our coverage in Eastern Jackson County. Another has created a newsletter for an underserved community, drawing more readers every day," the union said in a statement. "One keeps residents in a thriving county on the Kansas side informed about municipal decisions that impact their daily lives. And yet another is covering an area north of KC that has been neglected for years."

The structural forces behind these cuts are well documented. Joy Jenkins, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism who studies local media, points to the collapse of print advertising as the core driver. "Advertising had been the substantial revenue source for newspapers for years and years," she told KCUR's Kansas City Today podcast. As attention shifted to digital platforms, newspapers stopped being solid financial investments, and ownership consolidated into chains and conglomerates.

Reader revenue won't fill the gap soon. According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, only about 16% of people in the U.S. pay for online news, and that figure is not projected to change substantially. This year, for the first time, social media and video networks became the single most widely used way of accessing online news across the Reuters Institute's global survey — channels where very little revenue flows back to publishers and where algorithm shifts can upend traffic overnight.

The labor-market consequences extend beyond the journalists themselves. Peer-reviewed research Jenkins cites links the loss of local newspapers to declining civic engagement and civic knowledge. A 2020 study found that shrinking local coverage led to an estimated $1.1 billion in extra borrowing costs for local governments and taxpayers. A 2025 Columbia Journalism Review analysis found the closure of daily newspapers correlated with a rise in corruption charges, indictments and cases.

"Research has shown that without local newspapers doing this type of reporting, spending has gone up in some of those communities — essentially, politicians recognizing that they don't have those eyes and ears on them," Jenkins said. "There can be actual, tangible shifts in the way government runs as a result."

For the individual journalist, the market signal is stark: the roles being eliminated are precisely the accountability-oriented, beat-specific positions that defined the profession's value. Jenkins, a former local journalist herself, described the cumulative toll: rounds of layoffs and financial pressure damage well-being and mental health even among reporters committed to their communities.

Some outlets are testing diversified revenue models — subscriptions, donation drives, events and nonprofit structures — and Jenkins said many organizations are finding success with mixed streams rather than a single replacement for advertising. Northwestern's research on "news deserts" adds a complication: many residents in underserved areas don't recognize what they've lost, assuming Facebook groups, Nextdoor or TV news provide equivalent coverage.

With only about one in six Americans willing to pay for online news and platform distribution now dominant, the pressure on McClatchy's remaining newsrooms — and on the local-government accountability they provide — appears set to continue.