Nick Sloan is the new publisher of the Kansas City Kansan.
Sloan took over the Kansan from Gatehouse Media, a New York-based newspaper chain, earlier this week, and the Kansan is now a one-man show with Sloan writing copy in the mornings and selling advertising in the afternoon. He works wherever he can get a wi-fi connection -- the library, coffee shops, his apartment.
"I'm really excited about this," Sloan says. "It's going to be
a great challenge ... I just want to see if I can make an online model work, and I
might as well do it in my backyard."
Sloan has already made changes online. He's switched the Kansan's
Web site back to a blog format, which will allow him to do commentaries
and opinions. But Sloan says he'll focus on hard news.
"I'm really hoping to turn the Kansan back into a community Web
site, back to a community news source where people can submit their own
news, comment, submit their own posts," he says. "My goal is to create
conversation about Wyandotte County."
His first major goal is to get an office downtown.
"I really think it needs to be in the downtown area for it to work again," Sloan says. "To me, when the Kansan left downtown
on 9th and Armstrong, that's when things started to slide."
So he's looking.
Even though the Kansan has changed hands, Sloan says he's been able to retain the news site's three largest advertisers. So he's keeping his bills paid.
"There's definitely
going to be some long nights for the rest of the year. ... But I'm
ready for it I think."
Inside newspapers, there's often talk of an invisible wall between the
editorial and advertising departments, and mingling the two is often
considered a conflict of interest. But Sloan, the one-man news-and-sales-staff, considers his situation to be like that of
a small-town publisher.
"I completely
respect people questioning that, but I like to think of myself as
an ethical person and so far, I haven't seen it affect my content," he
says. "I'm going to do my best to not let that affect me."
Sloan also writes a blog devoted to local sports. He says he'll keep his blog and try to pull readers over to the Kansan.
The proposition of some long nights doesn't bother Sloan.
"It's
worth it," Sloan says. "It's really worth it. I'm from Wyandotte
County. I graduated from Sumner Academy. I was born here in 1985, so I
really want this to work out, not just for me but really for the area.
If I get it to work, it'll put Wyandotte County on the map in a
positive manner."
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