Kraske Loses Chance at Redemption

(Kraske's latest effort inspired me to offer a similar analysis.)

Steve Kraske, a writer for the Kansas City Star, has survived the rounds of lay-offs that have claimed better, more useful writers in those hallowed halls.

Steve Kraske, there went your best chance.

One final shot to start all over again and give this writing thing a fresh start.

It's an enormous irony. You've held onto a job at a paper with dwindling circulation and influence approaching zero. A significant victory, this is not.

This coup was staged by a rag-tag group of bloggers with little money, toiling away on folding chairs, in basements, living rooms and kitchens throughout the region. And they've bested you. When you've made off-base predictions, they've been correct. When you've asked foolish questions, they've asked insightful ones. When he has failed to produce any news worthy of publications, they have scooped him time and time again. When they have predicted a rising Democratic Party, he saw the Democrats as "doomed in November".

So, you survived, but in a strange way, you still lose.

Because getting fired from the Star offered you that last chance.

Here's my thinking: If the Star fired you, you had an opportunity to start up your own blog, and have one more time to face the naysayers and beat them into the ground. You could have tried to form an audience based on merit, rather than proximity to the sports page or comics.

You could have showed 'em, Missouri-style. You could have built traffic and been a real part of the thriving part of the media world. You could have rubbed the bloggers' noses in it when you were right. You could have built a monumental readership that would have demonstrated that you're a worthy commentator.

Now?

Now we have more of the same. The Big Muddle, I call it.

That is, just more of the same at the Star: More turmoil. More uncertainty. More off-base analysis and more discord. More aimless drift out of your column, just as things have been since virtually the day you took over.

Don't breathe too easy yet. The newspaper industry continues to suffer, and a columnist who continually produces analysis that is weaker than that produced by at least a half-dozen local bloggers is not in a safe position. Day after day, week after week, smart, informed analysts are publishing better stuff than you. Meanwhile, McClatchy continues to look at ways to cut costs.

Maybe you'll get that shot at redemption after all.