Johnson County Library provides access to The Kansas City Star Image Edition online through NewsBank, available from any of our Library locations or remotely with your Library card. The Library does not provide subscriber access to the Kansas City Star’s mobile app or website kansascity.com.
The Kansas City Star's publisher, McClatchy Media, packages its digital content differently for libraries and for individual subscribers.
- Image Edition: This is a digital image replica of the physical print newspaper. It's accessed through a NewsBank website available via our Library's website. NewsBank is the exclusive distributor of KC Star digital content to libraries, and it does not provide subscriber-exclusive access to the KC Star website or mobile app.
- Digital Access Subscription: This is a subscription directly through the publisher that provides subscriber-exclusive access to the KC Star website (kansascity.com), mobile app, and the Edition online. The KC Star offers Digital Access subscriptions only to individual customers, not to libraries.
- Edition (also called Today's Edition, formerly the eEdition): This is online daily news with expanded content beyond what's in the physical print version. McClatchy considers this the edition of record with 200+ pages of comprehensive and up-to-date coverage published online daily. Individual customers with a Digital Access subscription can read the Edition and other subscriber-exclusive content directly through the KC Star website and mobile app. Most current and past coverage for Today's Edition is also available to libraries through NewsBank, accessed via our Library's website.
In the Image Edition, you might notice teasers for subscriber access to the Edition including bonus content (formerly found in the Extra or Xtra sections of the daily paper) on the kansascity.com/edition website. That website is not available through the Library; instead continue to explore NewsBank's Kansas City Star Collection online.
Publisher distribution affects Library's digital collection:
Over time, the Kansas City Star's publisher McClatchy Media has changed how it provides subscribers content, affecting what and how NewsBank has been able to deliver that content to libraries. This has resulted in some gaps to the historical coverage available in the Kansas City Star Image Edition and NewsBank's broader Kansas City Star Collection that the Library offers.
- For issues prior to April 2024, most bonus eEdition content is located in the "Z" sections of the Image Edition.
- "Extra" and "Xtra" sections were discontinued in the Image Edition in April 2024.
- Saturday issues in the Image Edition were discontinued in May 2024.
- McClatchy transitioned to the Edition in July 2024 for individual customers but not yet available to libraries.
- In April 2025 NewsBank launched a collection for Today's Edition that includes past issues back to August 2024.