OPUBCO / Oklahoman Business Practices

[BoulderSooner]

The other great part is that we moved them from one part of okc to another. Nothing new was created here, outside the finish out of some office space. We basically paid them very well to move down the road.

1.5 mil to build out their office space i don't believe that TIF has been unsed in this way before or since

[Pete]

1.5 mil to build out their office space i don't believe that TIF has been unsed in this way before or since

The money was for tenant finishes, new furniture, equipment and fixtures.

It was also totally out of proportion with other TIF awards, which generally fall between 5-9% of the total investment being made.

Not sure what the Oklahoman paid on their end but you can be sure it wasn't over $10M; probably less that $5M, which means this TIF award was more like 30%+.

[BoulderSooner]

The money was for tenant finishes, new furniture, equipment and fixtures.

It was also totally out of proportion with other TIF awards, which generally fall between 5-9% of the total investment being made.

Not sure what the Oklahoman paid on their end but you can be sure it wasn't over $10M; probably less that $5M, which means this TIF award was more like 30%+.

right can you think of any other instance where TIF was used in this way ??

[Pete]

right can you think of any other instance where TIF was used in this way ??

Nope.

[stlokc]

Let me start this post with a few caveats.

First: I have not lived in OKC for a long time and so have not been a subscriber to the Oklahoman. Second: I have a number of problems with that paper, with respect to many of their editorials and the quality and depth (or lack thereof) of their news coverage. Even when it was at it's most robust it was not a very good newspaper. Third: I can't defend or speak much about their use of TIF money; it seems inappropriate to me (although I know the city of St. Louis would sacrifice small children to get a couple of hundred jobs downtown, so take that for what it's worth).

But I have to say that this thread feels like an awful lot of "piling on." Some people seem borderline giddy to revel in that paper's misfortune. I think what's happened is a tragedy. And it is not at all unique to OKC. The same exact thing is happening in St. Louis. We all know why; daily newspapers started giving away their content with the rise of the internet, they conditioned an entire generation to think the news is free. Loss of subscriptions = Loss of advertising. Loss of revenue = layoffs. Layoffs = a spiraling down of what quality was there. Short attention spans mean people are fine with getting news on Facebook or Twitter. We are becoming a less informed citizenry, actually a dumber citizenry. It's frightening.

When I read "Boomtown" by Sam Anderson, he wrote somewhere (maybe in the acknowledgements, maybe online) that he was grateful to the Oklahoman. Without the archived store of knowledge that they have/had, a book like his would not have been possible. I've thought about this before: daily newspapers are really the "diaries" of their cities. When the day comes that there are no more daily papers, who will be writing our history?

I visit OKC Talk multiple times a day. I love it. What Pete has built here is nothing short of remarkable. The forums are great and the news stories are great. This site often breaks news with respect to city development. But what he's not doing is the reporting of the mundane, the high school sports, the murders, scandals, the minutiae of city life. This is not his fault, let me emphasize that again, I love OKC Talk, but this site is not set up in a way to do that. Neither is the Gazette, I don't think. That's not the point of why they are supposed to exist.

Anyway, I understand why the Oklahoman is charging for content now. They should have been doing that for 20 years. Maybe it would have helped. Maybe not. But I'm in a nostalgic mood, and even though I'm not that old, I feel something very valuable slipping away and I don't like it.

[Rover]

Stk okc - very well said.

Don’t know why so many on here get so distressed about losing an old building but so excited to see daily local newspapers go away. Local papers have been a community cornerstone.

Looking forward to the Gazette covering the weddings, obits, local sporting events, and all the other things that happen in our community. Local journalism isn’t just about the big stories, but about the little stories that make community.

[Pete]

^

Keep in mind there are a lot of ways news can be covered outside a printed daily paper.

I get the nostalgia associated with the Oklahoman; I feel it too.

But their conflicts of interest and agendas have done so much harm to this city in state it is literally impossible to inventory. And it still goes on every single day. Virtually ever singe business story, for example, is highly shaded.


If they were to completely implode the news would still be covered, just by different outlets and in different ways. And I could make a very strong argument that apart from the loss of prestige associated with a printed daily, OKC and the state would be better off.

[Pete]

Looking forward to the Gazette covering the weddings, obits, local sporting events, and all the other things that happen in our community.

The Oklahoman charges for weddings and obits. The don't 'cover' them, they are paid placements.

As for sports, there are plenty of different and better outlets for even local sports, and we are considering adding sports back to the Gazette as well as other areas of local importance.

[TheTravellers]

...
Don’t know why so many on here get so distressed about losing an old building but so excited to see daily local newspapers go away. Local papers have been a community cornerstone. ...

Not "daily local newspapers", just The Oklahoman, and it's for many reasons. These include dubious journalism ethics, horrible working conditions (wife used to work there and I've heard stories), not-worth-the-money-they-charge, their editorial stances, front-page prayers, "winning" the worst newspaper in the nation, and other things like that. If they were a decent paper, I (and most likely others) would be mourning them if they go under, but they're not, and it'll suck if the good journalists that are left there are out of a job, but I won't be shedding a tear if the newspaper as an entity dies.

[Rover]

The Oklahoman charges for weddings and obits. The don't 'cover' them, they are paid placements.

As for sports, there are plenty of different and better outlets for even local sports, and we are considering adding sports back to the Gazette as well as other areas of local importance.

Good. Looking forward to your investment in making the Gazette a complete local paper. Daily, I hope.

[Pete]

There has been a lot of praised heaped on the Miami Herald for their extensive reporting on the Epstein case that has helped lead to a federal indictment. And then praise for 'local papers'.

But great reporting doesn't have to come from a daily newspaper.

In fact, in the really big stories that come out of OKC, the Oklahoman is not doing their job, they are doing the community a great disservice.

Chesapeake is the biggest example. They continued to pump out that company's press release propaganda while Rome was burning. Finally, Reuters came to town and blew the lid off of things which resulted in McClendon being ousted and the company actually being saved, rather than headed straight for oblivion.

They also carried the water for TEEMCO in an absurd faction, which allowed them to keep committing fraud.

Both those companies were advertisers with the Oklahoman.


SOME local papers are worth saving. And some need to go away as remnants of a monopoly that effectively squelched real local journalism.

There are plenty of people willing to step into the Oklahoman's void, and it's already been happening for about the last 5 years or so... Despite the paper's attempts to crush competition, all the while claiming to champion 'local journalism'.

Side note: less than half the content in the Oklahoman every day is written in Oklahoma. And of course, all the editing and layout are not done here either and any profit goes out of state while they continue to lay off people based here. I'm not even sure they qualify as a 'local paper' anymore.

[Pete]

Good. Looking forward to your investment in making the Gazette a complete local paper. Daily, I hope.

It's already daily. Just not printed daily.

People confuse those two things.

[stlokc]

I appreciate that the Oklahoman has conflicts of interest and agendas. That is part of why I don't think they were ever a very good newspaper. There are many examples. Where I think they have been even worse is with failure to follow through, failure to get both sides of a story. Look, I'm not arguing their shortcomings.

But I would say that even on their worst days, they get an awful lot of things right. If a political or corporate story is "slanted," well, there might be ten other news stories that are fine. (I'm not excusing their slant, but their work is Pulitzer Prize winning compared to what comes across my Facebook feed that the average person treats as "news.") I read an article in the Oklahoman today about the new administrator of the symphony who was from South Bend, Indiana and I sent it to a friend from South Bend. It's the run-of-the-mill stories that aren't slanted that are actually the Oklahoman's most valuable contribution to society. Sure, it's a black mark that their obits and wedding announcements are now "pay to play." Every paper is doing that for financial reasons and it's the era we're in. I don't like that, it means fewer people will participate and that community record will be gone as well.

Yes, for the extremely motivated individual, there are probably places they can go and get school sports coverage. They can find blogs somewhere about their neighborhood... maybe. There are local outlets like NonDoc for harder hitting analysis. They can catch a snippet about a murder on the 10:00 news ... maybe. But there are still a lot of things that are going to get missed or done away with entirely.

[Pete]

Yes, for the extremely motivated individual, there are probably places they can go and get school sports coverage. They can find blogs somewhere about their neighborhood... maybe. There are local outlets like NonDoc for harder hitting analysis. They can catch a snippet about a murder on the 10:00 news ... maybe. But there are still a lot of things that are going to get missed or done away with entirely.

I'm not saying it's all bad by any means.

Out of curiosity, if they were to go away what are the main things you worry about being missed?


(And BTW, they have been charging for their obits for as long as I can remember; not sure about weddings.)

[stlokc]

And Pete, I do hear you about Teemco and Chesapeake. OKC's "local" paper should have owned those stories.

[Pete]

And Pete, I do hear you about Teemco and Chesapeake. OKC's "local" paper should have owned those stories.

There are many, many more.

And it's worse than not covering those aspects. They actually serve as a PR outlet for far too many, directly promoting misleading and even completely false information.

Until I started covering local news I had no idea how much they just repacked press releases (which are frequently blatant propaganda) and/or how many times they use quotes or info from such a release without even identifying it as such. Both are cardinal journalistic sins that I never realized before, and the same is true for the average reader.

[stlokc]

I'm not saying it's all bad by any means.

Out of curiosity, if they were to go away what are the main things you worry about being missed?


(And BTW, they have been charging for their obits for as long as I can remember; not sure about weddings.)

Pete,
I just went on the Oklahoman's web page and just in 10 seconds noticed these stories:

Opioid addiction (Looks like they are covering that trial daily)
18-Year-Old struck by vehicle and killed (item of general news interest, in what other medium will that be noted?)
Henry files injunction against OKCPS Board (again, where will that be covered?)
Photos of Red Brick Night in Guthrie (Human interest, people pictured will love seeing those pictures)
Names of Children drowned in state lakes (obviously a matter of public record)
High School "Super 30" football players (of interest to a whole lot of people who care about those things)

I stopped looking because I need to write this post and then log off and get ready for a meeting. But when I see all those stories, what I think is, I personally may or may not miss any one of those in particular, in fact, I probably wouldn't read most of them myself. A couple of them I would. But every one of them has a constituency. Every one of those stories is important to a group of people. In the aggregate, they tell the story of what is going on across the city day-to-day.

With respect, how many of those types of stories will the Gazette be covering? I assume maybe a couple of them. It's that type of comprehensive history that I would miss more than any one of those stories in particular.

[Rover]

I'm not saying it's all bad by any means.

Out of curiosity, if they were to go away what are the main things you worry about being missed?


(And BTW, they have been charging for their obits for as long as I can remember; not sure about weddings.)

Don’t they post births, deaths, marriages, etc. in not paid announcements too?

Frankly, all of journalism is suffering from the business side. Just had this discussion with a recently retired journalist friend of mine. When he started was afforded following stories for day, weeks, month, and sometimes years until they got to the facts. Lately, he had to turn out words to fill space. This is with credible papers in other comparable cities where he worked for 40 years. He was an award winning journalist for much of his career who retired feeling like real journalism is a dying art and that truth is something that people won’t pay for.

[Pete]

With respect, how many of those types of stories will the Gazette be covering? I assume maybe a couple of them. It's that type of comprehensive history that I would miss more than any one of those stories in particular.

We could cover all that and more, especially in association with other local journalists... Including some that used to work for the Oklahoman.

[stlokc]

We could cover all that and more, especially in association with other local journalists... Including some that used to work for the Oklahoman.

I'm happy to know that. Seriously, I am.

The Gazette of my childhood (1980s-1990s) was probably 15 or 20 pages of news stories weekly - there was usually a big banner investigative story and then maybe 8-10 stories following, along with some columnists, I remember Pam Fleishaker because I knew her son. The remaining content consisted of stories and reviews of movies, plays, concerts, restaurants, clubs etc. I absolutely loved reading the Gazette because it helped verify that OKC is not at all a cultural desert. I even remember reading the small ads about loft apartments and the like and thinking that was cool. (I was kind of a nerdy kid).

What I would never until this moment have thought is that stories of hit-and-runs, trials and the like would have been in the Gazette's purview. Im not being facetious, I'm looking forward to picking up a Gazette the next time I come home.

[Pete]

People shouldn't look at this as a binary proposition where you either have the Okahoman or you have no decent local news coverage. The only thing that we are almost certain to lose is the daily printed paper, but the number of people who even want that is shrinking dramatically.


I'm not saying the Gazette can or will cover it all but there is a way that can be accomplished which doesn't involve the Oklahoman as we know it.

There are a lot of very good journalists here that really care about this town and would thrive if they weren't under the corrupt umbrella/influence of the Oklahoman. And they are indeed vastly corrupt, and I don't say that lightly.

I strongly believe that local journalism and the community as a whole would be better off without them. The product in most industries improves greatly once a monopoly implodes, despite the fear (strongly stoked by the monopoly itself) and uncertainy that always proceeds such a radical shift.

[soonerguru]

Their digital subscription interface is FAIL. Still cannot access the articles I'm paying for. I even messaged them over the weekend and no one contacted me. I called customer service today at 3:45 and the person there who can allegedly solve my problem "had to go home early."

[Dob Hooligan]

Newspapers are not dying. They are changing. I'm about 60 now and I am among the last age group that clings (until last month) to the hard printed version. I still read the print replica on my pad because it is what my brain decodes the easiest. I think the printed version is the biggest money losing part of the business today.

Papers haven't adjusted quickly enough to the concept that content is just as desirable, but the delivery method has to change. That means electronic, obviously, and the legacy investment in the physical delivery method of paper made the changeover impossible. The strategy used by the Oklahoman currently of running off the dinosaur print holdouts through dismal service is the most offensive part of their product today, IMO.

The sports section is the best part of the Oklahoman, but they put it to bed about 9PM nowadays. The editorial fits what the print dinosaurs want, but they are trying to run them off with poor delivery. I watch the local news on TV and it seems to have most of the local news and crime stories.

I think we want the news they was we always read it, and don't want to think that it is still going to be out there somewhere, but we are going to have to change how we find it.

[Jim Kyle]

(And BTW, they have been charging for their obits for as long as I can remember; not sure about weddings.)

Back in the late 50s, when I was the "rewrite man" for the Oklahoman, the obits were totally free. In fact, writing them was one of the primary duties of my job. Every day when I came to work at 4:30 PM I would call each of the funeral homes and get the list of new deaths for the day, with contact info for the families. I would then call each family, get the information, and write a two or three paragraph obit. When I moved up to the police beat in '58, my replacements on the rewrite desk were Bob Lee and Nick Foltz, both of whom went on to long careers in the newspaper business while I left it in '59 to become a tech writer. I have no idea when management decided to monetize the obits but they were still free when my father died in 1967.

[Pete]

^

Thanks Jim.

I know I had to pay what seemed to be a good chunk of money at a very bad time when my father passed in 1983.

That was long before the Internet bogeyman started eating their profits.