The Kansas City Star history

He purchased the Kansas City Evening Mail (and its Associated Press evening franchise) in 1882.

An organization of journalists began as early as 1883, with the foundation of England’s chartered Institute of Journalists.

The Star fought local saloons, advocated for infrastructure and successfully campaigned for the city’s Parks and Boulevards system, as well as calling on “Kansas City Spirit” to build Convention Hall in a timespan of just ninety days, allowing it to host the 1900 Democratic National Convention.

In 1901 Nelson also bought the morning paper The Kansas City Times (and its morning Associated Press franchise). Nelson announced the arrival of the "24 Hour Star."

President Harry S. Truman worked two weeks in August 1902 in the mailroom, making $7.00 the first week and $5.40 the second.

In 1911 it moved into its Jarvis Hunt-designed building at 18th and Grand.

In 1912 Columbia University in New York City established the first graduate program in journalism, endowed by a grant from the New York City editor and publisher Joseph Pulitzer.

After Nelson’s death, in 1915, an employee ownership plan was devised by his son-in-law, Irwin R. Kirkwood, and control of the paper passed to the employees.

Ida herself died in 1921, leaving the Star to their daughter, Laura Kirkwood.

Both papers were purchased by the employees in 1926 following the death of Nelson's daughter.

Kirkwood in turn died of a heart attack in 1927 in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he had gone to sell thoroughbred horses.

Among them was Roy A. Roberts, who would become managing editor of the publication in 1928, following the departure of Kirkwood.

In 1931, the Star won its first Pulitzer Prize, awarded to reporter A.B. MacDonald, who “solved a murder mystery… and brought a guilty man to justice” in Amarillo, Texas.

Harry S. Truman and T.J. Pendergast at the 1936 Democratic National Convention Image: Wikimedia Commons

He was ultimately sent to prison for failed tax payments in 1939, effectively signaling the end of the Pendergast Organization.

However, the Journal had shown strong support to the Pendergast Organization, and when it collapsed, the paper suffered, eventually going out of business in 1942.

In 1945, Truman was chosen as Vice President to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1954, Topeka correspondent Alvin McCoy won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles questioning the business dealings of the Republican national chairman.

The Star lost its case and had to sign a consent decree in 1957 that led to the sale of the broadcast stations.

The Star expanded beyond newsprint with the founding of the WDAF radio station in 1922 and the WDAF-TV television station in 1949. As a result, The Star had to sell its WDAF broadcasting stations in 1958.

Local ownership of the Times and Star ended in 1977 with their purchase by Capital Cities.

Together, the papers won two Pulitzer Prizes in the same year in 1982.

In 1985, Capital Cities shook the media landscape by purchasing ABC, a company four times bigger than itself, for $3.5 billion.

The Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC in January 1996.

Disney sold the paper to Knight Ridder in May 1997 as Disney moved to concentrate on broadcast rather than newspaper investments.

The plant began printing in June 2006.

When The Star building at 18th and Grand was sold in 2017, the Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections was contacted about a dark storage room in the basement full of historical records that needed a home.