OPUBCO / Oklahoman Business Practices

[Midtowner]

^

The extreme irony is that the Oklahoman is always pleading with people to subscribe and "support local journalism".

First of all, they are as local as an Applebee's; owned by a huge out-of-state corporation where the large majority of their product is not created by people here.

Secondly, I will continue to argue they are actually very bad for local journalism due to their wildly unethical tactics and their continued theft of work from people and organizations that actually *are* local journalists. Effectively, they are working against good, honest local journalism every single day.

I still receive a print copy every day. The elderly lady we bought our home from, nor her kids could figure out how to cancel the service, so it just keeps showing up. I read through it occasionally. They still do things like the obits well. It'd be pretty great if some of these local journalists could get some capital and make a run at starting a newspaper to compete and kill the Oklahoman. A lot of folks have abandoned it because of garbage content.

I'll give them a bit of credit for their editorial page. Though they are mostly filling space with op-eds, some pretty questionable, they are decidedly less partisan.

And one tip--their newspapers do pretty well breaking down in compost piles.

[Pete]

Obits are yet another thing that is done better online. The only reason you continue to see them in the paper is that a lot of their readers are dying. That sounds meaner than my intention, but it's true. If you are 60 or older and passing away, your audience is the average Oklahoman reader.


And don't forget, for decades the Oklahoman was the only option if you wanted to honor your loved one and let people know about their service. And they absolutely gouged people who were suffering the worst kind of loss. I know this because I had to run obits there for both my parents in the 1980s and I was absolutely shocked by what they charged, but really had no other option.

[Scott5114]

I don't even know if people my age (I'm 32) would even get much use out of a traditional obit. If I kicked the bucket, I assume everyone who knows me in person would find out from my wife's Facebook, and from there it would probably percolate to another forum I participate in, and that'd get all of my acquaintances. I don't know if anyone who would care that I died has so much as looked at a newspaper in the last ten years.

[Bellaboo]

Just cancelled The Oklahoman after many many years. My wife got a larger monthly bill than usual. She called and found out that they are charging more for inserts.

Adios.

[Martin]

Just cancelled The Oklahoman after many many years. My wife got a larger monthly bill than usual. She called and found out that they are charging more for inserts.

Adios.

wait... what? they're charging more for a version of the paper that contains advertising inserts that businesses pay to have included?

[Bellaboo]

wait... what? they're charging more for a version of the paper that contains advertising inserts that businesses pay to have included?

Yes. So we fired them. It was like 8 bucks difference the previous month. Just for the 'ARTS' insert.

[Thomas Vu]

wait... what? they're charging more for a version of the paper that contains advertising inserts that businesses pay to have included?

Talk about double dipping.

[dankrutka]

I was listening to the Down to Dunk podcast today and they mentioned that the Oklahoman ran a story on the NBA draft watch party at Fassler Hall last Thursday. The Down to Dunk guys organized it, spoke at it, and 100% made it happen. Fassler was absolutely overflowing with fans because of the podcast. Would you guess that the Oklahoman didn't mention the organizers and just called it a local gathering? The Oklahoman is so unethical and insecure that they won't even give a local basketball podcast credit. Granted, it's 10 times more popular than anything they produce (no shade at Joe Mussatto who does good work), but it's actually pretty similar to their treatment of OKCTalk. I'm guessing it's a company-wide policy not to give any grassroots media content any type of credit.

[Pete]

^

I saw those photos and wondered why there was such an organized crowd there; I knew it couldn't have just been an organic gathering.


I've heard so many excuses for why they function so unethically: it was the heavy hand of the Gaylords, then it was the new editor, then it was the newest editor and now it's because their newsroom has been slashed -- as if that somehow stops them from adding the phrases you see thousands of times in any other publication: "first reported by" or "credit to".

They go out of their way to draft off the work of others and then try to squash them with their fading monopoly.

They can't die fast enough for me. The few good people there will easily find jobs elsewhere but that institution is bad for OKC.

[soonerguru]

I continue to subscribe to the digital version. It is amazing how paltry and limited their coverage is, and how it continues to get worse. I had high hopes for the new Executive Editor but I haven't seen much of anything change. Oddly, their website platform has gotten worse.

[soonergolfer]

They stopped printing the Oil & Gas well permits and completions in the business section in the last week or so. Kind of like they stopped printing the real estate transactions every Saturday. It is pretty pathetic how lazy they have become.

[Laramie]

US newspapers dying at rate of 2 each week

NEW YORK – Despite a growing recognition of the problem, the United States continues to see newspapers die at the rate of two per week,
according to a report issued Wednesday on the state of local news...

... The country had 6,377 newspapers at the end of May, down from 8,891 in 2005, the report said. While the pandemic didn’t quite cause the reckoning that some in the industry feared, 360 newspapers have shut down since the end of 2019, all but 24 of them weeklies serving small communities.

An estimated 75,000 journalists worked in newspapers in 2006, and now that’s down to 31,000, Northwestern said. Annual newspaper revenue slipped from $50 billion to $21 billion in the same period.

Oklahoman, July 2, 2022 - Link: https://oklahoman-ok.newsmemory.com/...Ccz2InkIkt0kJC

[cindycat]

And now the comics are in black and white? I wonder if that's a mistake or another "cheapness." Maybe a shortage of colored ink!!

[catcherinthewry]

Reading The Oklahoman today it struck me that they should have a new motto: All the news that's fit to print - A day late.

Sad to see what it has become.

[Midtowner]

Reading The Oklahoman today it struck me that they should have a new motto: All the news that's fit to print - A day late.

Sad to see what it has become.

This post of yours reminds me of what a change has happened. Back when I was a student broadcast journalist at UCO's channel 22 circa 2000, I had the task of showing up at 2 o'clock P.M. and having a 90-second package (sound and audio) ready for air by 5 o'clock P.M. About 9 times out of 10, I had to go find my own subject. When I didn't personally know about anything on or around campus or in the community happening, I'd find a story in the Oklahoman--because that's how it worked back then. The newspaper reported things first, and then everyone else mostly reported on the same things the next day.

Nowadays, the real citizen-journalists have their own sites. They report things first. The newspaper and everyone else get their idea for filling content by ripping off the citizen journalists.

Considering what the Oklahoman charges for print subscriptions, I'm not sure that's a business model that's going to work for them in the long run. I still subscribe only because there isn't a strong viable option. If the local citizen journalists had some kind of trade association I could pay into in exchange for supporting all of them, I might go for something like that.

[Pete]

David Cathey (long-time food writer) announced Friday will be his last day at the Oklahoman.

Said he 'took a buyout' which is probably a nice way of saying he was laid off with severance.


The Oklahoman has been using kids right out of college and many of them write for other papers in the USAToday network and don't even live in OKC.

I was told they have less than 100 local employees, which is down from several thousand at their peak.

[jerrywall]

If the local citizen journalists had some kind of trade association I could pay into in exchange for supporting all of them, I might go for something like that.

I know it's not exactly what you're talking about, but nondoc does have their writer's fund - https://nondoc.com/writers-fund/

Nondoc isn't perfect but they're providing Edmond coverage via their newsletter and they're about the only game in town for that. Right now through the end of the year any donations will be matched by Newsmatch too, including 12 months worth of a monthly donation, if someone was so inclined.

[catcherinthewry]

What are they doing over at The Oklahoman? Berry Travel is on furlough. Is this a cost cutting move? What a disgrace.

https://twitter.com/BerryTramel/stat...59074948071425

[Pete]

^

I believe they all have to take periodic unpaid furloughs to reduce expenses.

[king183]

The Oklahoman has been delivering the paper to my house for several months. I don't subscribe. I have contacted them multiple times to tell them to stop delivering to my address (they're likely giving someone else's paper to me) and each time they say they've notified the system to stop delivering. We are still getting the paper. It's simply not a well-run organization by any means.

[Dob Hooligan]

The Oklahoman has been delivering the paper to my house for several months. I don't subscribe. I have contacted them multiple times to tell them to stop delivering to my address (they're likely giving someone else's paper to me) and each time they say they've notified the system to stop delivering. We are still getting the paper. It's simply not a well-run organization by any means.

I don't think you are getting someone else's paper. I think they are giving their delivery person more copies than subscribers. You pick up the paper, so you keep getting it.

Newspapers often print and distribute more copies than they have subscribers for. They need to have good circulation numbers for the advertisers so they might not right size downward subscription numbers for a few months.

[Pete]

^

As a side note, circulation numbers for newspapers are typically published every year.

And many advertisers demand audited circulation numbers every year or so.

Those numbers are used to calculate reach and also how much an advertiser is willing to pay.

I learned all this when running the Gazette.

[PM1]

The Oklahoman has been delivering the paper to my house for several months. I don't subscribe. I have contacted them multiple times to tell them to stop delivering to my address (they're likely giving someone else's paper to me) and each time they say they've notified the system to stop delivering. We are still getting the paper. It's simply not a well-run organization by any means.

The reverse happened to my parents a couple years ago. They finally canceled their subscription after weeks of it not being delivered.

[Rover]

I don't think you are getting someone else's paper. I think they are giving their delivery person more copies than subscribers. You pick up the paper, so you keep getting it.

Newspapers often print and distribute more copies than they have subscribers for. They need to have good circulation numbers for the advertisers so they might not right size downward subscription numbers for a few months.

I used to be in the publishing business. It may have changed but most publications were audited by ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations). Paid circulation and unpaid were accounted for separately. Advertisers take that information into account. As well, demographics was important, so verification of demographics affected advertising rates. If you could validate how many readers (as opposed to how many copies were circulated) that is important info too. So just wasting printed copies and throwing them wherever isn’t really valuable for ad revenue.

[Tydude]

https://twitter.com/Mecoy/status/1609002135345135617

Today was my last day at The Oklahoman. I accepted a buyout offer. Still a fan and supporter of the great journalists who work there. Not sure what’s next, but after 36 years it’s kind of exciting not to know.