The Kansas City Star names Greg Farmer as managing editor

The Kansas City Star has promoted Greg Farmer to managing editor, effective immediately.

Farmer, a Kansas City native who joined The Star in 1997, has been senior assistant managing editor overseeing enterprise and investigative journalism. The managing editor’s post has been vacant since the April 2015 retirement of Steve Shirk.

“I’m honored to partner with my colleagues and help lead this great newsroom, and I’m excited about the meaningful journalism we will do together in the years ahead,” Farmer said.

Through several posts, Farmer’s work has helped deliver “high-impact journalism” and execute the newspaper’s vision for a 21st century newsroom, said Mike Fannin, The Star’s editor and vice president.

“Greg brings the right balance of skills to tackle the challenges of a new media age,” Fannin said. “He understands the importance of doing journalism that is essential to our community. And he knows we have to engage with our fast-growing audience better than we ever have before.”

Farmer has been a story editor and digital editor and has run the newspaper’s metro department. He has been page one editor and news editor. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and earned an executive MBA from the Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“In the wake of stories done by his team, officials have resigned, new agencies opened and the powerful held accountable,” Fannin said.

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 9:59 AM with the headline "The Kansas City Star names Greg Farmer as managing editor."