KC Star sports editor Jeff Rosen constantly shifting in the digital age

It was late Tuesday night, into the early hours of Wednesday morning, and Kansas City Star sports editor Jeff Rosen was still working. A former University of Missouri tutor said she completed classes, took tests and answered questions for students, and the Star had broken the news.

Contributed Photo

When Rosen started working in sports journalism, it was a time when it could have waited until morning.

But now, at the Star, there isn’t time where he’s truly off the clock.

“My day starts at midnight and it ends around 11:59,” Rosen said. “And that is seven days a week, and I’m only half kidding… That’s just the nature of the business these days.”

His job is constantly changing, simply because it has to. The consequence of that is the difficulties of his job being ramped up. Now, he’s not just managing writers and keeping them creative and happy to be at the Star, but he’s managing the web, how the stories are shared, where they are shared, and tracking all of that with the Star’s trends methods — they have three of those now, Rosen said. 

“It was really hard the last few years to give appropriate attention to our writing staff,” Rosen said. “Because we were trying to handle all aspects of the print operation and handle stuff that we had to digitally.”

So, to handle the all of the tasks a sports editor has in 2016, Rosen and the Star had to make a shift in staff. Overall, the staff has fired over 20 people on the editorial side in the last year, but many of those positions have been filled — two on the sports staff — with web-based staffers to help track those trends and boost web traffic.

“We hired — not necessarily a better team of people — just a different strategy of our workforce,” Rosen said. “We're asking more and more of our reporters, and I'm there to kind of be a buffer, and that's hard. It's not something I don't like doing, it just takes up a lot of my attention, to make sure people feel rewarded and valuable still.”

Rachel Crader is one of those hires. She’s now officially the digital sports editor for the Star, but in the past she has been a print reporter at different outlets. But at the Star, her job — along with some others on the digital side and Rosen himself — is to bring clicks to the work other reporters are doing.

Facebook has been a great source for that. Rosen said the Star's Facebook brings in about 80 percent of the Star’s total hits, while 20 percent comes from everything else. That’s why Crader has created Facebook pages for the Star’s Kansas basketball and Kansas City Chiefs sections.

“Facebook, at this point, is like a free space for us to get our content out there, and it's so effective,” Rosen said. “We're closely watching that, and I think most news organizations are these days.”

Then there’s a spot where the two biggest aspects of Rosen’s job — managing content and working with his writers — collide. That’s in how those writers use social media to share their own work — which is the most effective way for those articles to be shared.

“Quite a bit falls onto them, because they're the ones that are the face of the coverage that the readership is reading,” Rosen said. “It's a combination of promoting your content and connecting with people by having fun and being informative. And people like that. If you're uncomfortable in that space, it's advisable to find a comfort level with it soon, because I don't think that's going away.”

Middle of the Map Fest continues expansion, but still breeds local music

When Chris Haghirian and Nathan Reusch came together to start the Middle of the Map Festival in 2010, they shared a vision of what it could be. That vision was an all-encompassing arts and culture event in Kansas City which mimics South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual music, film, and interactive media festival in Austin, Texas.

Now, six years later, after considerable expansion, both in content and in location, they’ve accomplished much of what they set out to do in emulating the exceptionally popular SXSW. But, at the same time, they’ve kept the festival their own.

Fittingly, Haghirian and Reusch met through local music. And local music, from both Kansas City and Lawrence, is what has kept Middle of the Map Fest different than SXSW. Although now the festival has numerous national acts — this year they hosted the Cold War Kids and Vince Staples — they’ve curated a breeding ground and a community for local artists.

“That was the idea, and the idea for Middle will always be to showcase local talent from great Kansas City and Lawrence bands,” Haghirian, a co-creator of the festival, said. “In order to do that, sometimes you have to bring in the big guns: you need to bring in the Cold War Kids and the base of the Cold War Kids fans, and their fans will come early, and they get to see great local bands.”

This year more attention was turned to the national acts than ever before. That process to bring in more national names came naturally, though, as the Middle of the Map continued to grow from its roots in Westport.

Now acts are branched all over Kansas City; from the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland in the middle of downtown Kansas City to multiple venues in the rapidly growing Crossroads district. That sprawling map of shows, along with the streetcar, which opened up this week, gave everyone in Kansas City access to shows and, more importantly, the local music from Thursday to Saturday.

“Just like Kansas City itself is growing and expanding, we as a festival decided that was a good move for us as well,” promotions and events coordinator Ashley Dowgwillo said. “One tagline that we’ve used is, ‘A festival born and raised in Kansas City.’ And that’s exactly what it is.”

Alongside Kansas City, multiple Lawrence acts have helped raise the festival as well. One of those acts is Ebony Tusks, a rap group which is composed of Marty Hillard, Nathan Giesecke and Daniel Smith. 

The group performed for a crowd of about 100 people before national acts Gallant, Vince Staples and ZHU played at the Midland on Friday night. Before Ebony Tusks performed, the stage belonged to Kansas City rap duo BLK FLANL, a group which has made plenty of noise in Kansas City since coming onto the scene, just like Ebony Tusks have.

“The festival goes to great lengths to bridge a lot of community gaps,” Hillard said. “They recognize all the community creators, all of the people who foster community between Lawrence and Kansas City, and I think they do a really good job of having them represented in the festival.”

But alongside individual acts, Haghirian and Reusch have admittedly stolen another part of SXSW which has made so popular: showcases. This year, as well as in 2015, Middle of the Map invited Lawrence website I Heart Local Music to host a showcase, which this year featured exclusively Lawrence bands, including Your Friend.

Middle of the Map also organized a 21 and under showcase this year, as well as multiple local record company showcases, including Kansas City record companies High Dive Records and Haymaker Records.

“We saw at SXSW how there are all these different day parties, like NPR, so what we’ve done is work with interesting organizations within our own communities to give them day parties and to let the shine,” Haghirian said. “You piece things together that make sense and you see those things — well, I saw them — for the first time at SXSW.”

But most importantly, for the creators of Middle of the Map, the community has embraced both the national and local music. With the festival’s rapid success, now sprawling 11 venues all over Kansas City, it’s clear that Haghirian and Reusch have learned exactly how to weave music lovers together from all over Kansas City. 

Then, in one way, the Middle of the Map Fest is its own. It does not bridge gaps between states, or cultivate music from all over the globe like SXSW has for years. Instead, it has truly mimicked it’s name, bridging the gap between all varieties of music lovers — music aside — in Kansas City.

“We’re lucky to have it so embraced by the community that it’s their own festival; it’s a festival you make of it, and people have embraced it as their own, which is awesome because we’re trying to do something really cool,” Haghirian said. “That’ll always be the goal: to shine a light on the music that’s coming from Kansas City that we think — that everybody in the community thinks — needs to be heard.” 

View MOTM Festival's development: From 2011 to 2016 in a full screen map

J415 Final Project: Middle of the Map Gallery

J415 — TV Story

Agg. Post 3 — More NFL News

NFL's Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Tobacco Industry — The New York Times delves into the NFL covering up some of its flaws in its research, as well as the way it reported concussions. It's an in-depth piece that prompted a response from Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Even NFL Players Worry About Money — This piece, from CNN Money, breaks down the struggle of saving money as an NFL player, and the different difficulties they face.  CNN does it in an interesting way that puts you in the place of the player.

Taxpayers have spent a staggering amount of money on NFL stadiums in the last 20 years — This piece from FOX breaks down how America is paying for many NFL stadiums. All together, taxpayers have paid for more than $7 billion dollars to build or renovate stadiums. FOX goes stadium by stadium to break it down.

This former NFL player lost $2 million in 90 days — This recalls the story of Marques Ogden, and how everything went from good to horrible in a matter of months. But it wasn't because of football: it was in a separate endeavor.

Make Your Money & Get Out: The New Truth in the NFL  — Some players in the NFL are choosing to get in the league, get their money, and get out. For many, that's the path that makes sense, for a multitude of reasons.

J415: Agg. Post 2 — Spending in Free Agency

Every major NFL free agent signing this offseason
SB Nation provides a full list of the top free agent moves and signings this season in a sortable, easy to use list. Can be sorted by name, position, 2015 team, and 2016 team. It's an easy way to see where notable names have landed in the scrum of free agency.

Editorial: NFL money dominates headlines
Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty writes, "The NFL so completely dominated our sports universe," just days before NFL free agency opened up. Even without games being played, NFL captures the top headlines in sports, and Daugherty takes a peek into what that is like for the Bengals.

Peyton Manning will retire with the highest career earnings in NFL history
Over Peyton Manning's 18-year career with the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos, the quarterback acquired over $248 million, according to Spotrac. The money doesn't include endorsement deals from Papa John's or Nike, but does include all bonus and contract money from the Colts and Broncos.

Dolphins restructure Ndamukong Suh's contract
After a disappointing season from their big splash signing last offseason, the Dolphins restructured the deal of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, freeing up $15 million in cap space for the team. With a couple other restructures and the release of receiver Greg Jennings, the Dolphins freed around $23.8 million in cap space.

Los Angeles Rams still executing player contracts in state of Missouri
The Rams relocated the California this offseason, but the team is still presenting contracts to free agents with clauses which state the contract is executed in Missouri. This is an attempt at getting around California's more strict, employee-beneficial workers' compensation laws, Fox Sports believes. It seems the team has avoided a final relocation just to save a little bit of money on the tail end, and their players will take the hit for it.

J415: Photo/Cutline

Isaac Wallman, 5, from Sterling, Kansas, waits to enter the Johnson County Community College auditorium where Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was set to speak on March 2.

Ahead of his rally at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, on March 2, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks to media.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas senator Ted Cruz speaks on stage at Johnson County Community College on March 2, just three days before the Kansas caucuses. Cruz spoke on the main points of his policy — from repealing Obamacare to second amendment rights — and fired plenty of shots at Donald Trump during his speech.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas senator Ted Cruz pauses during a rally at Johnson County Community College on March 2, just three days before the Kansas caucuses. Cruz spoke on the main points of his policy — from repealing Obamacare to second amendment rights — and fired plenty of shots at Donald Trump during his speech.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas senator Ted Cruz speaks on stage at Johnson County Community College on March 2, just three days before the Kansas caucuses. Cruz spoke on the main points of his policy — from repealing Obamacare to second amendment rights — and fired plenty of shots at Donald Trump during his speech.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas senator Ted Cruz speaks on stage at Johnson County Community College on March 2,  in front of a crowd of over 1,000. Cruz spoke on the main points of his policy — from repealing Obamacare to second amendment rights — and fired plenty of shots at Donald Trump during his speech.

After speaking at a rally at Johnson County Community College on March 2, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz meets supporters and signs autographs. 

J415: Agg. Post 1 — Super Bowl

ABC 7 News: Super Bowl Events Will Impact San Francisco for Nearly 3 Weeks
Security measures, extra traffic, and closure of streets meant San Francisco’s already-crowded landscape would become even more crowded for the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl While it’s a hassle for many residents, it’s also an opportunity for business to boom.

San Jose Mercury News: Super Bowl 50: Ready or not, Bay Area, here it comes
The Super Bowl was the largest event the Bay Area has ever hosted, one city official said. But the city and the area were prepared for what would come, despite all the preparation that went into it.

Super Bowl benefits host city, but by how much?
Accounting and consulting firm PwC said last week that the Bay Area would likely see a $220 million economic boost from hosting Super Bowl 50, though past Super Bowls have tallied as much as $500 million.

How much will hosting the Super Bowl cost San Francisco?
Some city officials in San Francisco are upset because the NFL — a $9.2 billion entity — did not pay for expenses involved in throwing the Super Bowl city party, including primarily police overtime and street cleaning. Rather, that’s tacked onto the taxes of the residents of the city. That said, there were many benefits elsewhere, though it’s not clear whether the city really came out on top.

San Francisco Supes Propose Ways To Spend Super Bowl 50 Tax Revenues
Though the economic impact report is not expected until May, the city is reaping the benefits of the tax revenues collected from the game. And with that money, city officials are pitching ways to spend that money.