OPUBCO / Oklahoman Business Practices

[BoulderSooner]

remember Gatehouse is now Gannett

[soonerguru]

The new print version looks nice, the Website is slightly more attractive, but it still features dated articles as well. What is sad is they have let so many reporters go their coverage of serious news is extremely limited, and when they do cover it, they rarely follow it up. They are letting the Stitt Admin get away with murder. It's a far cry from the days when they would publicly destroy a politician for a DUI (not saying that is the standard they should aspire to).

The Tulsa World website is considerably better. The best newspaper websites are NYT and WaPo.

[Dob Hooligan]

Praise Jesus! The print replica is available again on my iPad! When the changeover to the USA Today format happened a couple weeks ago we were told the print replica was going to be "temporarily unavailable" on tablets and other mobile type devices. I figured I was exiled to having to read the print replica on my laptop forever. But no! GateHouse/Gannett actually made the change.

[catcherinthewry]

Is anyone else unable to download the print edition of The Oklahoman today? When I click "Editions" the latest edition is the 13th.

[Jeepnokc]

Is anyone else unable to download the print edition of The Oklahoman today? When I click "Editions" the latest edition is the 13th.

Same here. Really dislike new website as far as ability to access and navigate e-edition

[catcherinthewry]

Well, I finally got it to download, but the print version is so blurry it's unreadable.

[unfundedrick]

Well, I finally got it to download, but the print version is so blurry it's unreadable.

I never download it. I just read it on line and I never have a problem with it being blurry.

[catcherinthewry]

Finally up at 8:30. What a joke.

[Pete]

They didn't mention this when Kelly Dyer Fry 'retired' but the new editor of the Oklahoman oversees 42 newspapers.

I’m Ray Rivera, the new executive editor of The Oklahoman. I also oversee Gannett’s Sunbelt region, which encompasses some 42 daily and weekly newspapers in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.

In this piece printed today, he said is passionate about local news:

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...rs/7260049002/


Yet, in today's Sunday paper, none of the 6 of the articles in the business section were local nor were they written by local staff.

[onthestrip]

They didn't mention this when Kelly Dyer Fry 'retired' but the new editor of the Oklahoman oversees 42 newspapers.




In this piece printed today, he said is passionate about local news:

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...rs/7260049002/


Yet, in today's Sunday paper, none of the 6 of the articles in the business section were local nor were they written by local staff.

And the real estate content, while not much to begin with, is pretty much gone. Saturdays were the day for that and its basically nothing now.

All these things yet they still charge $800+ a year for a subscription and delivery. They have to be shedding dozens of subscribers daily.

[TheTravellers]

I don't have a Twitter account, so I apparently can't see slackmeyer's tweets (a reporter making their tweets private - WTF?), does anybody know if his Friday live chat ever showed back up since the website overhaul? Every so often, it did have some actual useful/interesting information...

[catch22]

I don't have a Twitter account, so I apparently can't see slackmeyer's tweets (a reporter making their tweets private - WTF?), does anybody know if his Friday live chat ever showed back up since the website overhaul? Every so often, it did have some actual useful/interesting information...

You’re not alone. He blocked me, and I have had nearly zero interaction with him over the years. His list of blocked accounts is long. He is rather immature.

[TheTravellers]

You’re not alone. He blocked me, and I have had nearly zero interaction with him over the years. His list of blocked accounts is long. He is rather immature.

Interesting, I went to Twitter to see what the actual message said, and it appears his tweets are public again. I don't have a Twitter account, so it's not about him blocking me, the original message I saw was something along the lines of "You don't have permission to view this account's tweets".

[David]

There is absolutely no shame in blocking people on social media. If it happens to you you just need to accept that it did and move on.

[catch22]

nvm

[OkiePoke]

Steve is pretty quick to click that block button. He blocked me a few years ago because I was tagged in a comment. :shrug:

He has stated he is trying to be better about it though.

[Pete]

It's now basically re-packaged USA Today content with a bit of local news scattered in.

[DoctorTaco]

It's now basically re-packaged USA Today content with a bit of local news scattered in.

Possible improvement?

[Pete]

^

As much as anyone in OKC, I completely empathize with their difficulties.

But not sure why people would subscribe to a paper that endlessly promotes itself as local when the growing majority of its content is not. And national/regional news is easy to find.

And really, almost all the truly local stuff can be found elsewhere and is not only free but generally more timely.


I know a lot of us are emotionally tied to having a local, daily newspaper but the truth is the reasons we got in the habit of reading it in the first place have mostly evaporated.

I'm not sure they even deserve to call themselves local; they are about as local as an Applebee's: part of a huge conglomerate, most decisions made elsewhere, profits don't stay in state, with some local employees.

[Dob Hooligan]

I'm beginning to see the finished format for "local" newspapers (At least those that do not have a local billionaire acting as an angel investor and propping them up).

1. Eliminate print. Have a print replica that will be tolerated by all but the oldest readers. And they are dying quickly enough now to make it work.

2. Own enough different papers to create a decent national network of content. Standardize the majority of the daily edition so that 25% of the news section is local; 20% of business; 65% of sports. Obituaries and want ads are almost all local. Focus as much as possible on content that can be chosen by 3PM daily.

3. Create a "national subscription"; make it where a person can read any paper in the network with one subscription and one price.

I think the current Oklahoman is 70% of the way there.

2.

[Scott5114]

This is kinda funny. I found an article from 2009 where Don Gammill straight up just copy and pasted from Wikipedia. How do I know? Because I was the one who wrote the section of the article he copied from!

[Pete]

I took a quick look at today's Oklahoman and counted the articles that were written locally vs. those from wires, USAToday, etc.

Of 65 articles, only 18 were written by Oklahoman writers, and that includes briefs that are just transcribed press releases. That is less than 28% of their content.

Of those 18, 11 were in the sports section.

In the main news section, only 4 of 20 were written locally.

[cindycat]

I took a quick look at today's Oklahoman and counted the articles that were written locally vs. those from wires, USAToday, etc.

Of 65 articles, only 18 were written by Oklahoman writers, and that includes briefs that are just transcribed press releases. That is less than 28% of their content.

Of those 18, 11 were in the sports section.

In the main news section, only 4 of 20 were written locally.

The 3/23/21 edition - I guess they didn't have enough huge ads to fill the "local news" space, so they ran an article about Covid cases on Mt Everest...twice. Once in Sports and again in Business.
And on a silly side note: In an article about the Osage movie, the print edition shows a photo of a man from Pawnshop. Hmmm

[OkiePoke]

The 3/23/21 edition - I guess they didn't have enough huge ads to fill the "local news" space, so they ran an article about Covid cases on Mt Everest...twice. Once in Sports and again in Business.
And on a silly side note: In an article about the Osage movie, the print edition shows a photo of a man from Pawnshop. Hmmm

I didn't read the article, but there is a mother/daughter team from OKC that is climbing Everest and just got turned back because they had a Covid outbreak in their team. It may be releated.

[soonergolfer]

I noticed they don’t print property sales or building permits anymore on Saturdays. Since Steve never writes anything, he should at least track this stuff.