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Outlet profile

The Star

U.S. center-left

Owned byThe McClatchy Company, majority-owned by hedge fund Chatham Asset Management
FundingAdvertising and digital/print subscriptions, under a hedge-fund-owned chain that has cut staff and costs since McClatchy's 2020 bankruptcy
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Founded in 1880 by William Rockhill Nelson and Samuel Morss as the Kansas City Evening Star, it grew into the dominant paper in the Kansas City metro and one of the Midwest's largest, winning multiple Pulitzer Prizes over its history. It was long owned by The McClatchy Company, a national newspaper chain, until McClatchy filed for bankruptcy in February 2020 and was acquired that July by hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, which now controls dozens of McClatchy papers including the Star. In 2020 the paper published a widely noted six-part self-examination apologizing for decades of past coverage that ignored, scorned, or reinforced discrimination against Black Kansas Citians. Like most McClatchy papers under Chatham ownership, the Star has faced staff cuts and newsroom consolidation amid broader declines in local newspaper revenue. Its editorial board, now led by Pulitzer-winning editor Michael Lindenberger, is generally regarded as center-left, while its news pages follow standard mainstream-newspaper reporting practices.

Sources

  1. Kansas City Star – Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check
  2. With Deal For McClatchy, Kansas City Star Will See Its Fifth Owner In Four Decades | KCUR
  3. The Kansas City Star
  4. Kansas City Star hires Pulitzer winner Michael Lindenberger to lead editorial board
  5. A History of the Kansas City Star | Historic Newspapers

Profile compiled 2026-09-24; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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