OPUBCO / Oklahoman Business Practices

[Pete]

Rather than have these issues pop up in many threads, this is the place to discuss OPUBCO, their business practices and anything else related to their operations, reporting, etc.

Thanks.

[Richard at Remax]

Ill start. I think its highly annoying when you click on an article, and they only give you less than half of it. Then they ask you to "Click here to continue reading" then they add the rest of it on the next page. Its all for "page clicks" for advertisers so I understand that. Just add more advertising on the original page.

Or the click bait articles that lead to another site. But it shows that news ok got a click for it. They aren't even trying to hide it.

It may be the best idea for them just to go subscribers only. But make it fairly reasonable to access. Like few bucks a month.

[Pete]

I respect they need to create revenue but agree that the ads and autoplay videos (with no way to disable) and all the surveys and other junk are a bit much. Of course, you can subscribe to the paper then bypass all of that by logging into the Oklahoman.com.


Interestingly, one of the biggest revenue generators for newspapers was always the classified ads, and that has almost completely gone away now and there is no hope of getting that business back.

In my recent move, I used Craigslist a great deal and had tremendous success.

[Eddie1]

I hate it when I'm trying to read an article on my iPad and there are these annoying 'tab headlines' that keep appearing on the right side of the screen stacked on top of each other; I literally cannot finish the sentences on the original article I was trying to read.

How about making it like the LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, etc...after 10 articles a month you have to have a subscription to continue. The subscription has to be reasonable though, because the DO, IMO, is written for the 4th grade reading level.

[SoonerDave]

• The number of clickbait articles has risen seemingly exponentially in the last, oh, 90 days. I automatically avoid any link to an article with a number in it now.
• I'm delighted that AdBlock clips the autoplay videos for me in Chrome. They are infuriating.
• Most important, however, is the seeming abandonment of neutrality in some of their articles. I read articles - ostensibly not editorials - that include what are obviously opinion driven, eg "they are not happy with my questions." Really? What are your quotes and sources to back up that assessment of their emotional state, other than the fact you are inferring it from their lack of what *you* have predetermined is a "right" response? You want to editorialize, no problem. Just call it that. At least that's what I was taught back in 11th grade journalism
  

[David]

I've actually tried a few times to subscribe for the online access as a way of supporting their work (whatever you want to say about the more recent unpleasantness, Steve has been a huge net benefit to the city IMO), but it has never worked correctly. I always end up back at a screen that tries to make me log into a non-existent account. I suppose contacting support or whatever their equivalent is might clear up the problem, but if you have a system that can't let a reasonably savvy web user register without help, then you are kind of failing before you even get started.

[Urbanized]

I have an unlimited digital subscription that costs $15/mo and provides access to all digital platforms. I almost exclusively use the iPad app, which has none of the clickbait or any of the other stuff that people gripe about, and actually is a really elegant app. If you only want to use one digital platform (web, phone app), you can do so for $9/mo, which I think qualifies as "reasonable".

[David]

Yeah, that's the level I've tried to subscribe to, seems reasonable enough.

[Pete]

[*]Most important, however, is the seeming abandonment of neutrality in some of their articles. I read articles - ostensibly not editorials - that include what are obviously opinion driven, eg "they are not happy with my questions." Really? What are your quotes and sources to back up that assessment of their emotional state, other than the fact you are inferring it from their lack of what *you* have predetermined is a "right" response? You want to editorialize, no problem. Just call it that. At least that's what I was taught back in 11th grade journalism

Steve Lackmeyer was always listed as a "Reporter". Now he is a Reporter and Columnist (this designation changed very recently). I've never seen a person be both; you either are a reporter of facts or you write a column with opinion. And in most his writings, he combines fact with opinion without any distinction whatsoever.

Also, I've never seen someone who claims to be a reporter so frequently reference themselves -- lots of personal pronouns, especially "I".


The Oklahoman needs to designate him as either a reporter OR columnist and have him adhere to the principles of that discipline. The present situation seriously detracts from the often excellent information offered.


I also have some comments about his blog, chats and Twitter feed, as they are all offered under the "Steve's OKC Central" branding by OPUBCO but often go well beyond opinion and into wildly emotional and personal outbursts. I'll come back to that later but frankly, I have a very hard time understanding why his employer allows this; but clearly they do.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Steve Lackmeyer was always listed as a "Reporter". Now he is a Reporter and Columnist (this designation changed very recently). I've never seen a person be both; you either are a reporter of facts or you write a column with opinion. And in most his writings, he combines fact with opinion without any distinction whatsoever.

Also, I've never seen someone who claims to be a reporter so frequently reference themselves -- lots of personal pronouns, especially "I".


The Oklahoman needs to designate him as either a reporter OR columnist and have him adhere to the principles of that discipline. The present situation seriously detracts from the often excellent information offered.


I also have some comments about his blog, chats and Twitter feed, as they are all offered under the "Steve's OKC Central" branding by OPUBCO but often go well beyond opinion and into wildly emotional and personal outbursts. I'll come back to that later but frankly, I have a very hard time understanding why his employer allows this; but clearly they do.

I had to unfollow him on Twitter. The rants are too much. He needs a personal and work Twitter.

Also I hear him and Brianna talk a lot about journalism school principles. Steve tends to not follow these rules quite often. Be impartial stop trying to be the center of the story.

[baralheia]

The biggest thing that drives me batty about the Jokelahoman is the way they handle ads for AdBlock Plus users. Instead of working to get their ads approved on ABP's "Acceptable Ads" whitelist, they go out of their way to foist ads on ABP users - even if I manually disable ABP for their site. In my experience, they actually display MORE ads to ABP users than non-ABP users. And then they block access to content regardless of whether ABP is on or off - to be able to watch their videos, you have to uninstall ABP.

I get it, they need those ad views and clickthroughs to support their business model, and I'm absolutely willing to see some ads if they aren't intrusive - but circumventing a block like that and generally making the experience worse is only going to make me less likely to support their site or click an ad.

[Pete]

Even if you have a personal Twitter account, when you are a public figure (or at least directly identified with your employer) it is extremely unwise to go off on rants and highly-charged personal battles. Lots of people get fired for much less on social media.

Also, at least two times I personally saw Brianna Bailey tweet outrageous profanity; once in the course of criticizing OKCTalk. Our involvement aside, that type of lack of judgment is very troubling especially when you are trying to hold out yourself and your work as professional and reliable.

[AP]

I don't want to harp on him too much but yes the mixing of his personal opinion on politics(even though he has said multiple times he doesn't get involved) and reporting on OKC, really annoy me. I follow him for development updates. I don't care what he thinks about political parties. I have a friend the works for the TW and she has a professional account for reporting news and a personal account that is private. I think that is the best way for reporters to handle their SM.

[SoonerDave]

Even if you have a personal Twitter account, when you are a public figure (or at least directly identified with your employer) it is extremely unwise to go off on rants and highly-charged personal battles. Lots of people get fired for much less on social media.

Also, at least two times that I personally saw Brianna Bailey tweet outrageous profanity; once in the course of criticizing OKCTalk. Our involvement aside, that type of lack of judgment is very troubling especially when you are trying to hold out yourself and your work as professional and reliable.

Although it didn't involve any personal profanity, I unfollowed Lackmeyer on Twitter for one of those rants a few months ago. Initially, it was nice to get the content he was sending out, but for my personal taste it started taking a non-informative turn, and when this one thing (that I think was intended as a joke) happened, I'd had enough.

Even in this "enlightened" age where profanity is a great deal more tolerated than it once was, I can't think of *any* professional environment where it is considered appropriate conversation or conduct. Surely that holds true for individuals in a public-facing enterprise.

[Mr. Cotter]

Also, I've never seen someone who claims to be a reporter so frequently reference themselves -- lots of personal pronouns, especially "I".

This is my only real issue with Steve's articles, which I genuinely enjoy for the most part. The recent article that just Steve talking about how the Villa Teresa buyers lied to him was the worst I've seen in an escalating pattern. Five years ago, he was obviously passionate, and not always objective, but the stories seemed less about Steve.

[Mr. Cotter]

I have an unlimited digital subscription that costs $15/mo and provides access to all digital platforms. I almost exclusively use the iPad app, which has none of the clickbait or any of the other stuff that people gripe about, and actually is a really elegant app. If you only want to use one digital platform (web, phone app), you can do so for $9/mo, which I think qualifies as "reasonable".

I'd gladly pay for quality reporting of local news, but the Oklahoman digital access shouldn't be more than the NY Times.

[okatty]

I'd gladly pay for quality reporting of local news, but the Oklahoman digital access shouldn't be more than the NY Times.

NY Times is fantastic. Get digital and just for the old times fun read the hard copy Sunday. It sometimes takes me most of the week to get thru the Sunday ha (even though it is what is you see online). Some great stuff.

[FighttheGoodFight]

NY Times is fantastic. Get digital and just for the old times fun read the hard copy Sunday. It sometimes takes me most of the week to get thru the Sunday ha (even though it is what is you see online). Some great stuff.

I get a free copy at work. Otherwise I would subscribe. We get Washington Post as well. I consider myself covered.

I donate to NPR (KGOU) as I listen most days in the car.

[soonerguru]

1. What is with the arbitrary pay wall? I get that they want subscribers but it is oddly deployed, for example the story about Christina Fallin suing the janitorial company for unpaid wages.

2. I imagine most of their readership is now online. So why do they post so few photos with their stories? It's bizarre. It's not like they are running out of "space."
More photos would generate more user site engagement.

3. Why do they publish so much right-wing click bait from The Examiner? We all secretly believe the DOK is a biased, conservative news source, but publishing the garbage from the Examiner just undermines whatever attempt the DOK tries to make to appear an objective news organization.

4. Why no depth to the stories? Steve does a good job on his pieces but most of the news and sports articles are six to eight paragraphs, max. It's again like they are short of "space."

The Oklahoman was a good early adopter of the Internet, but it appears to have stalled.

[soonerguru]

Oh, and I pay to get the Sunday New York Times delivered to my house (a service the Oklahoman provides through its delivery operation). I love getting it and it is the only physical newspaper I read anymore.

[Mr. Cotter]

3. Why do they publish so much right-wing click bait from The Examiner? We all secretly believe the DOK is a biased, conservative news source, but publishing the garbage from the Examiner just undermines whatever attempt the DOK tries to make to appear an objective news organization.
.

Common ownership.

I also hate the links to online articles, even the ones from Tulsa World (who, for some reason, does better reporting from the Capital than the paper of record in the capital city).

[Pete]

Noticed the Oklahoman is now running TV ads basically saying that newspapers -- and theirs in particular -- are far more reliable than getting news through Twitter or social media.

Interesting they chose a 50-something for testimonial; seems like they are trying to hold on to their aging demographic rather than going for younger people.

I'm in my mid-50's and I'd say that a lot of my contemporaries still have the paper delivered but many of them have dropped it or considering doing so.

[turnpup]

We dropped the physical paper and (occasionally) look at the print replica online. The only thing that's missed is the daily crossword my husband used to sometimes work.

Who needs the newspaper when you have OKC Talk?

[Jeepnokc]

We dropped the physical paper and (occasionally) look at the print replica online. The only thing that's missed is the daily crossword my husband used to sometimes work.

Who needs the newspaper when you have OKC Talk?

If you double click on the crossword, it will come up in a format you can print off

[bradh]

We're in our mid 30's and get the paper daily, our 5 year old might flip out if she didn't get her daily comics (the actual comics fellas, not the content).

That said, while some of the stuff I read is maybe something I already knew, or I can pick up a hint of bias, I remember that a lot of people work for the paper and there are good folks working there who are just doing their best to provide some journalistic work. I guess I just don't feel the need to crap on them at any chance.