GKC-AWC MEMBERS WALK AND TALK
WITH THE KANSAS CITY STAR

By Linda Cruse

About 20 members and guests of the Greater Kansas City Professional Chapter of the Association for Women in Communications toured the Kansas City Star's Press Pavilion on Wednesday, Oct. 18, as the chapter's first program of the year.

The Press Pavilion, located just northeast of the main Star building, is a new, ultra-modern building that is two city blocks long with more than 420,000 square feet within four different levels (click image to see larger image; photo courtesy of Tom McBride).  

The eight-story building houses four 68-foot-tall, Commander presses. Members and guests were able to see the highly automated press operation and ask questions about the daily press operations during the hour-long tour.  

Following the tour, the group gathered for networking and dinner at the Grand Gallery. Anne Spenner, assistant managing editor at The Star, was the guest speaker. She gave a presentation regarding The Star's recent redesign. She shared information regarding the process that went into planning the redesign, overall goals and results. 

The redesign is intended to make the newspaper easier to read, with more subheads, newsbriefs and news lists. The newspaper is 20 percent smaller in size, but it is much larger in content because many of the sections have more pages, Spenner said. The colors are more vibrant and the overall look is designed to be similar to a Web page, she said. The Star's circulation has increased since the design, she said.

Linda Cruse is vice president-programs (with Kirsten McBride and Marilyn Ebersole) of the Greater Kansas City Professional Chapter of AWC.

Posted 10/24/06