OPUBCO / Oklahoman Business Practices

[TheTravellers]

TheTravellers,
I don't ever remember the "community" section being printed on the front page and I have taken the paper since 1965. When it's delivered, it has the appropriate section but when you buy it, if you are in Warr Acres, you get the West Section.
C. T.

Yeah, that's the way it's *supposed* to work, but my wife got 2 different zoned editions at the same place yesterday, so something's off somewhere in their distribution channel.

[ctchandler]

Yeah, that's the way it's *supposed* to work, but my wife got 2 different zoned editions at the same place yesterday, so something's off somewhere in their distribution channel.

Oops! Oh well, as a long time subscriber I probably haven't purchased a paper more than once every ten years or so, so I'm no expert. When did they start printing the "community" sections, 70's or 80's?
C. T.

[Paseofreak]

Man, Lackmeyer has come unglued lately. He's slamming what is arguably the Metro's best Pho house because they don't make Korean Fusion on Twitter. He needs a lesson or two on empathy, humility and a few other things.

[ultimatesooner]

Man, Lackmeyer has come unglued lately. He's slamming what is arguably the Metro's best Pho house because they don't make Korean Fusion on Twitter. He needs a lesson or two on empathy, humility and a few other things.

he seems a bit off, kinda like his med levels aren't the same everyday

[Paseofreak]

You may be onto something there.

[Canoe]

Pete,

Is there management at the daily Oklahoman that you could contact to get them to cite OKCTalk correctly? There is a big difference between 'the internet' and a specific website.

[Canoe]

Pete,

Is there management at the daily Oklahoman that you could contact to get them to cite OKCTalk correctly? There is a big difference between 'the internet' and a specific website.

I was mistaken in the above post. I have been informed that the Oklahoman has not taken any renderings or information from this site without giving credit. All information acquired was from either the developers or from city representatives.

[Canoe]

Reposting from a different thread.
http://www.thelostogle.com/2016/06/0...eetings-today/

[stile99]

I'm going to put my money on they're being bought.

[stile99]

Nope. They're just giving up.

http://www.news9.com/story/32179087/...medium=twitter

[Pete]

Ah, they are going to out-source their printing to the Tulsa World.

This had been coming ever since they sold all their property on Britton to American Fidelity.

Will be interesting to see how AF repurposes the print plant and related facilities.

[TheTravellers]

And according to a TLO tweet, also apparently outsourcing copy editing/layout functions to Gatehouse Media, which owns the J-R, which is weird.

[5alive]

That is interesting. Gatehouse also owns the papers in Ardmore and Shawnee.

[Zuplar]

Ah, they are going to out-source their printing to the Tulsa World.

This had been coming ever since they sold all their property on Britton to American Fidelity.

Will be interesting to see how AF repurposes the print plant and related facilities.

Cafe, conference rooms and more offices is the current plans. AFA has been chomping at the but for them to get out of there.

[Pete]

IIRC, the Oklahoman had a five year lease for that print facility so I bet AF gave them some incentives to leave early.

[TheTravellers]

And according to a TLO tweet, also apparently outsourcing copy editing/layout functions to Gatehouse Media, which owns the J-R, which is weird.

A bit off topic here, but, in case the Journal Record is still claiming to be a "statewide" business newspaper, two full-time reporters and one full-time photographer in Tulsa have been let go, and the JR no longer has an office in Tulsa.

[Pete]

Interesting article by the Columbia Journalism Review regarding how the Oklahoman basically ran advertisements for its billionaire owner's resort, in the form of newspaper articles. Then, the Oklahoman wouldn't return calls to answer questions about it.

The Oklahoman also frequently promotes 'stories' from the Washington Examiner, which are really nothing more than editorials by another of Anschutz's holdings.

http://www.cjr.org/united_states_pro...d_anschutz.php

[zookeeper]

Interesting article by the Columbia Journalism Review regarding how the Oklahoman basically ran advertisements for its billionaire owner's resort, in the form of newspaper articles. Then, the Oklahoman wouldn't return calls to answer questions about it.

The Oklahoman also frequently promotes 'stories' from the Washington Examiner, which are really nothing more than editorials by another of Anschutz's holdings.

http://www.cjr.org/united_states_pro...d_anschutz.php

That's pretty sad. They're apparently not even strong enough to take the questions from the CJR.

The Examiner stuff gets old fast. Editorials dressed up as "news" stories.

It's all sad.

[Pete]

Who actually writes the editorials for the Oklahoman?

As in, who sits down decides to write an editorial on a certain subject, then either writes it themselves or oversees the person actually doing the writing?

Just curious.

[onthestrip]

Who actually writes the editorials for the Oklahoman?

As in, who sits down decides to write an editorial a certain subject, they either writes it themselves or oversees the person actually doing the writing?

Just curious.

I've always wondered the same thing. I dont picture E-I-C Kelly Fry sitting down and writing them personally. Is there some national conservative writing group that pushes them out? I seriously wouldnt be surprised if so. I mean, many of the editorials come from uber conservative publications like the Washington Examiner.

[ctchandler]

I seriously wouldnt be surprised if so. I mean, many of the editorials come from uber conservative publications like the Washington Examiner.

Sometimes they are from the Washington Examiner, but they always credit them in the op-ed when they are.
C. T.

[ljbab728]

I am normally one of the biggest supporters of the Oklahoman here but I'm totally unhappy with the recent decision to have the paper printed in Tulsa. Besides having to have an earlier deadline which leaves out any late breaking news, the quality of the print is terrible. Many pages have dim print and the layouts are not good. This was not a good move if they are anxious to keep loyal readers.

[SoonerDave]

I am normally one of the biggest supporters of the Oklahoman here but I'm totally unhappy with the recent decision to have the paper printed in Tulsa. Besides having to have an earlier deadline which leaves out any late breaking news, the quality of the print is terrible. Many pages have dim print and the layouts are not good. This was not a good move if they are anxious to keep loyal readers.

While The Oklahoman has endured the transition from print to print-plus-digital content as well or better than any newspaper around, I have a sneaking suspicion this decision and their willingness to endure the fallout suggests things financially at the paper aren't nearly as good as one might think.

THink about it for a moment. You're the publisher of the state's main daily paper. You're contemplating a decision to move your printing service to cut costs. You explore that plan, and one of the things you inevitably discover is the change it will have on deadlines. You *know* what it will do to content. You *know* how it will affect your ability to cover in a timely manner arguably the key drawing cards you have for your paper.

You make the move anyway.

And that move is every bit as disastrous as you feared, if not worse. You can't cover major sporting events that fall even into the modest late evenings. Your printed product looks like something put together by an 80's HS journalism team. Your process is *so* streamlined and subcontracted you route composition from OKC to a company in Texas, then send the package to your print team in Tulsa. You probably couldn't fix the problem quickly if you even wanted to - at least not in short order.

I have a feeling things are pretty ugly inside the Oklahoman right now. Whatever you feel about the paper - and I stopped taking it years ago when they gutted their sports pages - there are people there working hard to put out a decent product, and *they* know this printing issue is a disaster for what it does to their credibility and ability to report. Barry Tramel was on The Sports Animal about this very issue, as Jim Traber an Al were grilling him about the situation...as if Tramel could do a thing about it. You could hear the frustration and helplessness in his voice as he talked about what their new deadlines are.

It would be a miserably hard thing to be in the print journalism profession right now. The Oklahoman's chickens, as it were, are just coming home to roost, as they are for more and more daily papers. The WSJ is getting ready for a draconian round of cuts. I wouldn't be surprised to hear more cuts and changes at The Oklahoman, and none for the better.

[TheTravellers]

... Your process is *so* streamlined and subcontracted you route composition from OKC to a company in Texas, then send the package to your print team in Tulsa. You probably couldn't fix the problem quickly if you even wanted to - at least not in short order.

The "print team" in Tulsa is your main competitor (if I remember right, the Tulsa World is printing the Oklahoman, I don't think it's a separate company, but I could be wrong). And the "company in Texas" is also your competitor, they do copy editing/layout for the Journal Record. Odd choices, maybe the only ones available, but still...

[SoonerDave]

The "print team" in Tulsa is your main competitor (if I remember right, the Tulsa World is printing the Oklahoman, I don't think it's a separate company, but I could be wrong). And the "company in Texas" is also your competitor, they do copy editing/layout for the Journal Record. Odd choices, maybe the only ones available, but still...

You're right, it's the TW doing the printing, but my point is that the Oklahoman is doing ALL these things knowing full well the handicap it places on themselves...it just seems to me you wouldn't do these things unless you flat were running out of alternatives.

Reading the Sunday Oklahoman sports section after a home OU game used to be wonderful part of the weekend. .So many great writers and photographers who covered the game in depth, game stories, back features, postgame, the works. Now its all sound bites and annoying, worthless fluff pieces by Jenni Carlson. I finally woke up one day and realized this wasn't the paper I was used to reading, and after a few days of tossing the paper in the trash because I'd lost interest in reading it, I cancelled my subscription. And that was years ago.

Lots of people have done the same, maybe not for the same reasons. But the Oklahoman at one time had a really good sports page. Times have changed. Their coverage of the Thunder is *really* going to suffer, especially for those west-coast games that will have a late start/finish time.