Lured by the promise of a Shanin & Parks T-shirt (which we scored!), Justin and I visited the Kansas City auto show at Bartle Hall this afternoon. Before we even made it through the ticket line, we were jumped by a career news seller with fear in his eyes.
"Hey guys! You subscribe to the Star?" he asked us. His white plastic ID tag was flipped around backwards so I couldn't see his name. "We're trying to get the circulation back up. We just need people to help us out and ride through this and we'll get the paper back the way it was. But it's still a great paper."
I already subscribe to the Star. I want them to survive this economic shit storm because as much as I dislike certain columnists, they're still reporters and therefore part of my tribe. And the city's better off with a solid daily. Finally, who the hell can take pleasure in anyone losing their job these days? Kendall, who also already subscribes to the Star, was nicer than me though; he was willing to buy a new subscription from this guy. The salesman was trying to act calm, but his eyes were huge, and he was gripping his copy of the day's edition so tightly I thought he might tear it apart.
Back in high school I used to sell subscriptions like this guy, so I know it's a tough job. You often have to apologize for stories you never read and editorial decisions you had nothing to do with. When I was 17, I got spit on -- truth -- because some dude had a problem with a story about his kid's high school basketball team. At least that's what I think he said. Anyway, despite the bullshit, you act professional and try to put on a happy face and sell based on the paper's value. You stick to the idea that the Sunday edition alone probably saves you enough in coupons to make up your subscription money. This guy, however, was practically on his knees polishing our shoes with his tears, and we agreed to sign up.
I asked him how long he'd been with the paper, and he said 12 years. "It's been real rough lately, though. They've been cutting as much as they can and cutting staff, but I know we can get through this. We just need to build back up that circulation, just get that back up and we'll be all right, and we can rebuild everything. It's not us, it's McClatchy. They've got other papers that aren't doing so well so it hurts us even though we haven't been doing as bad. We've been doing good actually. I know we'll be OK. People in this town they, they like the paper." And here he stopped to reverently pat the stack of Friday editions.
Next to it was a reproduction of the first paper, from September 18, 1880, when it was the Kansas City Evening Star, when the big stories involved a gun-club shoot, a Grand Barbecue and a team of horses becoming frightened and breaking away from their carriage.
Once Kendall had his new deal, the salesman gave him a complementary umbrella patterned with comic strips. "Thanks guys. It's a good paper. You read this every morning, even if you don't watch the news at night, you haven't missed a thing."
I hope the guy's right about making it through this tough time. But if I were him, I still would've remembered to push the coupons.
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