Readers give The Star excellent story ideas. We’re grateful — and we want to hear more
On March 3, around noon, several of us at The Star received an email from David Neihart of Prairie Village. The subject line: “What happened last night at the airport?”
Another reader, Anthony Depetre of Parkville, sent a similar message.
Immediately Star reporters Bob Cronkleton and Kynala Phillips began trying to answer the question.
The result was an article published later that day on our website, KansasCity.com, and later on the front page in print, that detailed the frustrations area residents were having trying to pick up passengers at the new Kansas City International Airport terminal.
The coverage clearly mattered to many of you: It was read tens of thousands of times. We might have eventually heard about the problem without Mr. Neihart or Mr. Depetre emailing us. But there’s no doubt the story happened faster and more completely because they cared enough and trusted us enough to ask.
We are grateful.
We are asked often where our reporters get the ideas that eventually turn into stories in The Star.
While the answer is that we hear about possible stories in many ways – a regular source calls, we’re out walking or driving and see something, we find documents, we hear something at a meeting, and so on – a primary starting point is you, our readers.
Without you offering your suggestions and often providing good initial points of contact, we simply could not provide the depth of reporting you see every day in The Star and across our digital channels.
Your partnership matters in ways big and small, and so today I want to celebrate that KCI story and a sampling of the many more you made happen over the past few months.
- Reader Eli Pfefer reached out thinking he was being overtaxed at Johnson County supermarkets because they hadn’t lowered their rates to reflect decreases in the state sales tax on food. Reporter Jonathan Shorman dug in. What really was happening was that Mr. Pfefer was shopping in a special tax district, where the rate was higher to begin with, something he and a lot of other people didn’t know.
- After reporter Natalie Wallington wrote about the $12,400 water bill one Kansas City resident received, five more customers with similar problems contacted her. One of them, Ron Carter, described the extraordinary bills he was dealing with as treasurer of Linwood United Church. He became a big part of this story explaining the difficulties residents endure getting the high water bills corrected.
- As Kansas City officials tasked a committee with proposing a plan for reparations for Black residents, The Star put out a call for reader input. We had more than 100 responses, and reporter Anna Spoerre credits those readers with making it possible to tell this story about what the reparations effort means to them.
- Plaza apartment resident Chris Peters contacted us about a note he found on his door saying his rent was going up nearly 30%. He and his neighbors were concerned and asked smart questions of their landlord and city leaders. Reporter Katie Moore wanted to get to the bottom of it and wrote this article explaining that Missouri law limits how much local officials could help and places residents in precarious situations.
Not every story you bring to our attention is so serious. Keep the fun and useful ones coming, too. Take these few examples:
- A reader left us a voicemail about her 104-year-old mother, Mary Ellen Purucker, whose most prized possession is a signed jersey from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Lisa Gutierrez told this happy story, with charming video by visual journalist Monty Davis, as part of our coverage in the days before the team’s Super Bowl victory.
- Joyce Smith, who reports on restaurant and retail comings and goings, hears from readers regularly asking “what are they building” or “is that going to be a new restaurant?” Recently a reader tipped her off to this story on the closing of the Olathe Wahlburgers by letting her know about a recent visit when the restaurant was closed at an odd time and a UPS “sorry we missed you” note was on the door.
- Some reader tips don’t come by email or phone. They can also come through our social media channels. This story about the future of the blue terrazzo floors from the old KCI terminals came to us via Instagram comments that one of our audience growth producers, Alison Booth, collected and shared with our service journalism editor, Allison Dikanovic.
You’re always welcome to email me at gfarmer@kcstar.com or another member of our staff any time to share your ideas. If you aren’t sure which staff member to email, no problem. You can share your story idea here, and we will get it to the right person. Or connect with us on our social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
New at KansasCity.com
Do you want to let people know about a community event? We can help with that, and it’s free.
We have launched a Community Bulletin Board that allows you to publicize a community event or to find a listing of things to see and do around town.
There’s no charge for a basic event listing that includes a name, date, time and place and up to five more lines of text. If you need more space, it’s $1.50 for each additional line per day. The listings will run online and in print.
Is your church having a clothing giveaway? Is your neighborhood garage sale coming up? What about that fundraiser for your team or club? This bulletin board will help publicize the event and make it successful.
Here’s how to make a post about your event: Go to our Community Marketplace homepage by clicking “classifieds” on the drop-down menu on the top left of the KansasCity.com homepage, then clicking “place a classified ad.”
From there, click the “announcements” tab and select “community events” from the menu. Then simply follow the directions to enter your event listing.
You will need to create an account to make a post, but there is no charge for that. Also, have a photo or logo ready to upload with your listing.
Community events make Kansas City special. We’re delighted to be able to serve as a connection point. I invite you to try out our new Community Bulletin Board and send feedback to me at gfarmer@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Readers give The Star excellent story ideas. We’re grateful — and we want to hear more."
