Kansan going online-only starting Jan. 10

The Kansas City Kansan – established in 1921 – is taking a bold step into the future on Jan. 10, when it will end its 87-year history as a print newspaper and switching to an entirely digital publication.

The Kansan will launch a revamped Web site on Jan. 7.

“I’ve been in this business for 30 years and it sounds cliché to say it, but printer’s ink runs through my veins,” said publisher Tim Larson. “The Kansan has been around for more than 80 years and I don’t know how many publishers, so its somber to think that I’m the last publisher to put out a print edition.”

The Jan. 10 issue will contain more on the history of the newspaper and a retrospective on some of its coverage from pages of the Kansan through nine decades of serving Wyandotte County.

Founded on Jan. 31, 1921, by U.S. Sen. Arthur Capper, the Kansan was for decades the only daily newspaper serving exclusively Kansas City, Kan. and the other towns of Wyandotte County.

Meanwhile, KansasCityKansan.com reaches nearly 7,000 local residents monthly in its current configuration.

The new KansasCityKansan.com Web site will offer greater opportunity for reader participation through comments and posting their own news and announcements. Businesses and civic organizations, for example, will be able to post their own press releases. Readers will find it easy to share community photos or their own stories and opinions.

“This is not going to be a newspaper turned into an online product,” Kansan General Manager Drew Savage said. “It’s going to have a completely different look.”

The format of the site will be more like a blog, making it easier for readers to scan through all the stories from a particular day and find the ones they wish to read more carefully.

Without the cumbersome tasks of page design and layout, and other duties associated with print, the online staff will be free to find more and varied stories to post online. Without press deadlines to contend with, the staff will be able to keep up a continual flow of news every day, publishing breaking news and information as it comes in.

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