Kansas City’s Northeast News is a free weekly print and online publication focused on the gathering and delivery of news that is relevant to the Historic Northeast Kansas City community. Established in 1932, it has evolved into a multimedia Community Journalism outlet, reporting on local government, education, public health, social services, and neighborhood issues that directly impact the Neighborhoods and residents of Historic Northeast Kansas City, Missouri.
Our Mission Statement
The Northeast News is committed to serving our community in the best way we can. We welcome feedback from our neighbors and community members. Our team is here to report on the often untold stories, advocate for your community and tackle all the complex issues here.
Our History
Dear readers,
For more than 89 years, Northeast News has served as the independent voice of Historic Northeast Kansas City.
“We plan to continue our tradition of advocating for the Historic Northeast community,” Publisher Michael Bushnell said. “We are full of excitement moving in to the New Year.”
Northeast News dates back to 1932, founded during the Great Depression.
During WWII, news of area soldiers fighting in both the European and Pacific theaters of the war filled the pages of Northeast News.
In 1956, Tom Patton and Leron Hill purchased the paper and continued to produce community news for the Northeast community. Then, in 1976, Terry and Mary Brock purchased Northeast News and relocated it from St. John Avenue to 6612 Independence Ave. Later, it moved back to the 4600 block of St. John Avenue.
Under the Brocks, the business expanded by adding typesetting services, partnering with a local print shop to provide printing services.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the newspaper became a local shopper circular with little coverage given to community news.
In 1998, Bushnell and his wife, Chris Adams, purchased the paper with the goal of steering it back to the quality news source it had once been.
The newspaper office relocated to 5715 St. John Ave. in 2001 and still operates there today.
As a member of the Missouri Press Association, the paper has won a number of awards for excellence in Journalism, photography, page design and general excellence in news reporting.
Along with staff and ownership changes over its 76 years, the newspaper has seen technological shifts with the times. In 2005, the Northeast News website was launched at www.northeastnews.net. To keep up with the social networking trend, Northeast News created a Facebook page (Kansas City’s Northeast News) and can be followed on Twitter at NortheastNewsKC.
The Northeast News staff thanks the community for embracing the independent publication for 76 years and looks forward to many more.
Thank you for reading,
Publisher Michael Bushnell
Staff Biographies
Michael Bushnell – Publisher
Michael has been the Publisher of Kansas City’s Northeast News for nearly 25 years.
Shortly after moving to the Scarritt Renaissance neighborhood in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast community, he was elected President of that neighborhood association and served two terms, one seven years, another three years. In 1996 Michael resigned from his corporate communications job in Overland Park, KS, and accepted a position as the Executive Director of the Northeast Chamber of Commerce. It was through this position he learned that the local community newspaper was for sale.
He and his wife Christine purchased The Northeast News in 1998 and quickly converted it from a weekly tabloid shopper to a viable community news source that serves Kansas City’s Historic Northeast community.
In March, 2021, the Northeast News team made the decision to publish a newspaper with a blank front page to show what it would look like if the community lost its locally owned news source. That story was picked up first by CNN which carried over to coverage by such international news organizations such as The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Seattle Times and the Associated Press Newswire. In all, the story was picked up by media outlets all over the globe and still garners attention over seven months later.
At the 2021 Missouri Press Association convention the paper was the recipient of 14 awards for excellence in Journalism as well as Advertising and Marketing. In 2020 the paper secured the association’s Best in Show award for the development of advertising and marketing campaigns for small business clients in the Historic Northeast community.
Abby Hoover – Managing Editor
Abby graduated with a BA in Mass Communications and Journalism from Kansas State University in 2017. She interned at the Northeast News for the summer of 2017 and was Interim Managing Editor in the fall of 2019 before moving to Hudson, NY, where she was the City Reporter for Columbia-Green Media’s Register-Star and Daily Mail.
She returned to Kansas City and The Northeast News amid the pandemic in June of 2020 and purchased a home in North Indian Mound with her husband, Tucker.
Abby loves listening to her neighbors tell stories of the old neighborhood, and her favorite part of the job is interviewing people who are passionate about their work. When she’s not reporting, you can usually find her walking along Cliff Drive with her dog or drinking coffee at a nearby café.
Dorri Partain – Customer Service
A graduate of Central Missouri State University, Dorri wrote a freelance feature column for the Northeast News from 1998 to 2006 and joined the news staff in 2016. Dorri moved to the Northeast in 1986 and loves all the parks, especially the Indian Mound and Cliff Drive.
She has two sons and three cats. Dorri also has an extensive collection of matchbooks, and other “relics” that she enjoys researching for the Remember This weekly feature.
Bryan Stalder – Creative Director
Bryan grew up in Northeast. He and his wife have been raising their children in the Indian Mound Neighborhood since 2003. He served on the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association board from 2011-2019.
Bryan began drawing editorial cartoons for the Northeast News in 2008 and took over the Creative/Art Director role in 2017. His rebranding of the newspaper and his ad designs have garnered numerous top awards in the state of Missouri.
Bryan supports the small businesses in Northeast by shopping and dining locally as much as possible, and his favorite thing about Northeast is all the creative talent that exists here.
Our Board
Bobbi Baker-Hughes – President/CEO Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce
Ellen Goebel – Accountant
Manny Abarca – KCPS Board Treasurer, past Indian Mound Neighborhood Association president
Editorial Independence Policy
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.
Donor Transparency Policy
We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.
Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.
Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Historic Northeast Events, a registered 501(c)(3), we accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. We are pursuing our own 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, and when we receive that designation, we will operate as a public trust and we will not pay certain taxes. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.
Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.
We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Read our Conflict of Interest Policy here.
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