The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle recently rejoined the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA), and one of the biggest benefits of being an AJPA member is the annual conference.
More than just an excuse to schmooze, this conference facilitates the sharing of ideas, support and resources for Jewish publications across the country, no matter the size.
We went with some trepidation — The Chronicle has the smallest staff of any attending publication (just Assistant Editor Lacey Storer and me), and our relative geographic isolation (we’re hundreds of miles from another Jewish newspaper) made us wonder if our situation was comparable in any way to larger publications from the East and West Coasts.
Our worries were assuaged immediately as we met editors, journalists and staff from some of the finest Jewish publications who treated us with incredible kindness. We learned that despite our size and location, our newspaper can proudly stack up to those of communities more than twice Kansas City’s size.
Our interactions with staff of The Observer; The St. Louis Jewish Light; Intermountain Jewish News; Jewfolk, Inc.; Hadassah Magazine; The Jewish News (Sarasota, Florida); Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Jewish News Syndicate and many more were fun, fruitful and fulfilling. We even met the staff of The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and learned how much we have in common beyond our publications’ names.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the conference can be summed up by the title of one of the sessions: “The Joys and Oys of Jewish Journalism.” This journalistic field is unique, and the changing preferences of consumers, rises in cost, rapidly advancing technology and the weight of covering constant antisemitism pose legitimate problems for every Jewish publication. And yet, those “oys” are often counteracted by the joys — everything as big as an accolade to as small as the nachas of an article cut out and stuck on a refrigerator door.
What we learned at the conference will help us continue to improve and develop the paper even beyond what we accomplished since the readers survey in 2023. For example, The Chronicle now has a word search (see page 6); brought Listening Post back; and continues to refine the redesigned format introduced last fall. We’re working to cover a broader range of people and stories, all while maintaining the standard we hope you’ve come to expect from The Chronicle. I implore you to look in the archives (kcjc.com/archive) at a paper from 2021 and see how much The Chronicle has changed in these three short years — if you like the updates, there are more in store.
I would be remiss if I didn’t ask for our readers to spread the word and continue to support us. This paper is small, but we truly believe it is crucial for the story of our community to continue. The conference taught us that Jewish publications across the country need the stalwart support, both morally and financially, of the Jewish community to continue.
We ask you to renew your subscriptions upon expiration, and we ask you to encourage your Jewish friends to subscribe. If you have the means, it would be incredibly helpful for our long-term feasibility if you would donate to The Chronicle at kcjc.com/donate.
Times are both terrific and tough for the state of Jewish journalism, and we appreciate the AJPA, all the people we met at the conference, and everyone who has taken the time to read this editorial for caring about Kansas City’s 104-year-old Jewish news source.
