OPUBCO / Oklahoman Business Practices

[Pete]

It was announced that Publisher/Editor Kelly Dyer Fry is retiring at the end of the year.

Not coincidently, it was reported yesterday that 600 employees of Gannett (the parent of the Oklahoman) were offered buy-outs in order to reduce staff.

Not clear how Fry's duties will be handled after she leaves. I suspect there will no longer be a Publisher role and even the editor responsibilities could be handled by a regional or national employee.

[Pete]

The front-page story of the Oklahoman today (Sunday) is on the convention center.

Virtually the entire thing was plagiarized from a press release (I posted the release in the Convention Center thread a few days ago) and the article fails to mention the reporter (guess who) never even spoke to the people he's quoting.

Not only is this outrageously unethical (to the point other newspapers have fired writers for the exact same thing) it calls into question virtually everything they print. How do you know if they actually spoke to someone or if they are just lifting quotes from a PR-driven press release? Also, how do you know if the subject hasn't merely provided something they want printed?

And worse yet, they take these releases then put them behind a paywall, asking people to 'support local journalism'.

Here is the "article":
https://oklahoman.com/article/567954...apital-project

Here is the press release:
https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.p...61#post1151161

[soonergolfer]

I’m guessing Steve doesn’t have time to be an actual journalist. He is too busy retweeting Trump slam tweets and COVID scare stories.

[Pete]

I’m guessing Steve doesn’t have time to be an actual journalist. He is too busy retweeting Trump slam tweets and COVID scare stories.

Even though his Twitter feed is titled "Steve's OKC Central" which is the same name branded by the Oklahoman for his articles, a huge percentage of his tweets and retweets are political. Then he gets all bent out of shape when political issues are raised in his chats and acts completely mystified why that happens.

And of course, he is constantly fighting with people on Twitter and very often blocks those who call him out and intermittently makes his feed private to block out dissenting voices.

He also claims questions about outlying areas are not his beat, but then is quick to steal our stories about things like the Paycom drive-in and all the Amazon facilities. His beat seems to be downtown and anything he reads on OKCTalk.

[king183]

Even though his Twitter feed is titled "Steve's OKC Central" which is the same name branded by the Oklahoman for his articles, a huge percentage of his tweets and retweets are political. Then he gets all bent out of shape when political issues are raised in his chats and acts completely mystified why that happens.

I stopped following him because of his political tweets. It’s not that I agree or disagree with them; it’s just that I didn’t follow him to hear his political opinions, many of which are simply a reflection of what he thinks will get him “likes.” I followed him for information on OKC development and I already get enough ill-informed or like-seeking political posts from every other angle. I guess he’s welcome to do with his Twitter feed as he sees fit, but if I want to hear political opinions, I’m not following a local development reporter to fill that void.

[Pete]

^

He also does all this under the banner "Steve's OKC Central" and doesn't even bother with the obligatory 'all opinions are my own' disclaimer.

He uses the huge platform provided by the Oklahoman for very personal reasons and frequently embarrasses himself. It says a lot about that publication that they allow him to do this under the banner they are providing.

Of note, he has lost followers over the last year or so (now under 19K) and I'm proud to say OKCTalk is very close to passing the 100K mark across the 3 big social media platforms (we'll eclipse that threshold sometime this month or next) and have well more on Instagram than even the Oklahoman.


I've noticed more and more of their reporters and their business editor plagiarizing press releases and taking stories from OKCTalk and claiming them as their own. Any thin excuse revolves around their shrinking newsroom and lack of resources but at the same time, Steve seems to have unlimited availability to sit on Twitter all day every day and tweet thousands of times.

[Video Expert]

Even though his Twitter feed is titled "Steve's OKC Central" which is the same name branded by the Oklahoman for his articles, a huge percentage of his tweets and retweets are political. Then he gets all bent out of shape when political issues are raised in his chats and acts completely mystified why that happens.

And of course, he is constantly fighting with people on Twitter and very often blocks those who call him out and intermittently makes his feed private to block out dissenting voices.

He also claims questions about outlying areas are not his beat, but then is quick to steal our stories about things like the Paycom drive-in and all the Amazon facilities. His beat seems to be downtown and anything he reads on OKCTalk.

This is so spot on.

[Jersey Boss]

Satire and laughter would be a good counterweight. A parody account along the lines of "Devins Cow" would provide this.

[catch22]

Satire and laughter would be a good counterweight. A parody account along the lines of "Devins Cow" would provide this.

Many moons ago I started a Leve Stackmeyer twitter account. I'm not very creative at that sort of thing so I abandoned it - plus it fed his ego that he was worth being parodied. He's an easy target that doesn't play well with others - so he makes the target even bigger on himself.

[5alive]

I try to not be negative in my comments...but...The Oklahoman's new website look so small market. Hard to believe.

[Pete]

^

I believe they finally converted to the GateHouse standard layout.

Just one more thing that has been outsourced and centralized.

[Pete]

They now have tons of auto-play video ads.

[Brett]

Same web layout as USA Today. I do appreciate not having an endless scroll of ancient news articles.

[gopokes88]

Omg. LOL. What a **** show.

[HangryHippo]

Same web layout as USA Today. I do appreciate not having an endless scroll of ancient news articles.

The lack of *new* articles is a continuous embarrassment.

[nighttrain12]

Plus I no longer see places there to post comments on stories. Are they afraid of dissenting viewpoints?

[bucktalk]

And yet they still charge $3.50 for the Sunday Oklahoman?!!? I didn't realize they charged so much until I saw a paper recently while staying at the Bradford House. Unreal what they charge!!

[BoulderSooner]

Plus I no longer see places there to post comments on stories. Are they afraid of dissenting viewpoints?

i think they lack the personal to review the comments .

[Pete]

I give the Oklahoman a hard time but I do want them to succeed and they are doing what they have to do, which is being a part of a huge, centralized organization with essentially just a news bureau here.

People have no idea the difficulty and expense around print journalism. Especially now.

[Bellaboo]

I took the dang paper ever day since 1978. Last year we cut back to 4 days a week. This past January we have had all we wanted out of them. They would miss us 3 out of the 4 days a week we were paying for. They've called back a couple times wanting us to renew and all we told them was it's been a relief not trying to track the paper down and no thanks, never again.

[Pete]

^

It's a business in which once you lose a customer -- for whatever reason -- it's almost impossible to get them back.

Also very hard to get new subscribers of any sort.

That adds up to a steady downward trajectory with the only hope being that you can hold onto some semblance of a reader base, which is increasingly difficult given all alternative news delivery systems out there.

I'm not sure what the future holds for print newspapers but it's hard to see how trends can be reversed. At least owning a bunch of publications with a centralized core is a relatively fresh approach.

[Bellaboo]

All sports news in the print versions are a day late. I get all I need else where. It started several years back when they started printing the paper in Tulsa.

[Dob Hooligan]

Newspapers have been trying to walk a fine line for the last 10-15 years and they are real close to the final product. Daily "papers" are now a features enterprise, and their editorial staff is pretty much 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. That subscriber base is pretty much bottomed out and they are within eyesight of break even. Most Steve Lackmeyer and Berry Trammel stories are not super time sensitive. The goal is for the legacy value of the name and economy of scale for breaking news departments of the overall multi-city operations to drive paywall subscribers. Comments do not have value because they are primarily grievance and/or political rants.

As the population ages and becomes more internet focused, then Oklahoman . com subscribers will be willing to pay to get the breaking Thunder, OU/OSU football, high school sports and other "hyper local" content.

I think there is a missing link where breaking news can be plugged into the print replica format in a low cost manner. So the reader can get the "newspaper replica" visual while getting quicker info.

[ctchandler]

I have a bum arm and bad eyesight and I gave up the hard copy fifteen years ago. I have subscribed since 1965. But I have read the print replica online since I quit the hard copy. The lateness on the hard copy and print replica was due to the fact that it is printed in Tulsa. I believe the digital is more up to date.
C. T.

[cindycat]

When the print edition is late (as it is today), I drag my breakfast to my computer desk and read the print replica...except that it's now called E-edition and it's not there either. Living on Tulsa Time!