Tulsa World

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Tulsa World

Tulsa World's headquarters located in downtown Tulsa.
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	World Publishing Company
Publisher	Robert E. Lorton, III
Editor	Joe Worley
Founded	1905
Headquarters	324 S. Main Tulsa, OK 74103  United States
Circulation	110,467 Daily 154,953 Sunday[1]
Official website	tulsaworld.com

The Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. The World is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1905 and remains an independent newspaper owned and operated for four generations by the Lorton family of Tulsa.

Contents 1 History 2 Circulation 3 Recent developments 4 Competing Newspapers 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The Tulsa World was first published on Sept. 14, 1905.

Eugene Lorton was named editor in 1911. He would run the Tulsa World for the next 38 years. In 1917, he became the paper's sole owner.^[2] For the first time the words, "Oklahoma's Greatest Newspaper" appeared on the identifying logo at the top of the front page. The phrase remained the paper's unofficial motto for nearly 80 years.

In 1915, in the midst of a highly personal fight over the lack of a clean, safe water source for Tulsa residents, the World advocated an ambitious, yet extremely expensive, proposal to build a reservoir on Spavinaw Creek and pipe the water nearly 90 miles to Tulsa. Charles Page was among those who opposed the Spavinaw plan. He had his own plan to sell water to Tulsa from another source for a much smaller initial outlay. Page started a new publication, the Morning News, with the expressed intention of silencing the World.^{[citation needed]}

For three years the papers fired broadsides at one another. The World called Page a tax cheat who used his philanthropy to hide assets and camouflage predatory business practices.^{[citation needed]} The Morning News called Lorton a "hound from hell" and suggested he be lynched or at least chased out of town. In 1919, Lorton wrote, "It is the duty of a newspaper to expose evil, sham and graft; to arraign at the bar of public opinion, and eventually bring to justice, the officials of the city, state or national government who have betrayed their trust. It is not its duty or privilege to print untrue or libelous stories."^{[citation needed]}

The Spavinaw plan eventually prevailed, and the creek remains Tulsa's primary water source. Page closed the Morning News in 1919 and sold its companion paper, The Democrat, to Richard Lloyd Jones, who renamed it the Tulsa Tribune in 1920. In the 1920s, the World was known for its opposition to the Ku Klux Klan, which had risen to local prominence in the wake of the Tulsa Race Riot in the spring of 1921. Eugene Lorton was active in Republican Party politics until he suffered defeat to the ultimate winner, William B. Pine, in the 1924 primary election for the U.S. Senate. Lorton then supported Democrats Alfred E. Smith in the 1928 Presidential election and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936. However, Lorton refused to support Roosevelt's third term bid in 1940; he returned to the Republicans and remained so for the rest of his life.^[2]

The Tribune and the World entered a joint operating agreement in June 1941. The agreement lasted until the Tribune closed and the World acquired its assets in 1992.^[3]

Eugene Lorton died in 1949, leaving majority interest in the newspaper to his wife and smaller shares to four daughters and 20 employees. He intended, he said, for the employees to eventually own the Tulsa World. In the 1950s, his widow, Maude Lorton, transferred one-fourth of the company to attorney Byron Boone, who became publisher in 1959. Upon her death, she left the rest of her shares to her grandson Robert. In 1964, Robert Lorton became director of the Newspaper Printing Corp -- a joint-operating agreement company that existed between the Tulsa World and the Tulsa Tribune that combined all non-editorial business operations. In 1968, he became president of the Tulsa World and publisher upon Boone's death in 1988. The Tribune was bought by the World in 1992 and ceased publication. During those years, Robert Lorton reacquired the World's outstanding shares and made the newspaper entirely family-owned once again. In May 2005, he passed the title of publisher to his son Robert E. Lorton III.

[edit] Circulation

A Scarborough readership study from 2008 shows that the World reaches more than 410,000 daily readers every five weekdays, and more than half a million Sunday readers every four weeks.^{[4][citation needed]}. As of March 2008, the paper's circulation as reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations is 112,469 for the daily editions and 161,361 for the Sunday edition.^[1] In March 2009, the World's publisher stated that the paper's website had more than 700,000 unique visitors and 8.6 million page views per month.^[5]

[edit] Recent developments

The World laid off 28 employees in early 2009, many of whom were recent college graduates and had only been working there for a few months. Twenty-six newsroom employees were terminated immediately. ^[6] Editors said in a memo that staff members would be challenged to produce a quality product after the layoffs, and editors asked remaining newsroom employees to take on new duties.^[7] In March 2008, the World closed its zoned suburban newspapers, called the "Community World," and laid off its 18 staff members.^[8] Print circulation has dropped at the World in recent years. As of September 2008, weekday circulation was 110,467; Saturday circulation was 119,627; and Sunday circulation was 154,953.^[9]

In January 2009, the World filed a libel lawsuit against noted local blogger Michael Bates, Urban Tulsa Weekly, and the Weekly's editor and publisher, over a column Bates wrote for the weekly paper, in which Bates expressed doubts about the World's circulation numbers based on a 2006 report by the Audit Bureau of Circulation.^[10] On January 20, the World said it would drop the case against Urban Tulsa Weekly and its editor and publisher, after the weekly paper agreed to issue a retraction,^[11] but Bates remained a defendant.^[12] The World's decision to sue a competitor paper was criticised in a column by Slate editor Jack Shafer.^[13] On February 12, 2009, the World reported that Bates had issued an apology and retraction, and that the libel lawsuit had been settled on confidential terms.^[14]

In January 2009, the World and Oklahoma City's daily newspaper, The Oklahoman, announced a content-sharing agreement in which each paper would carry some content created by the other. The papers also said they would "focus on reducing some areas of duplication, such as sending reporters from both The Oklahoman and the World to cover routine news events."^[15]

On March 29, 2009, the World published a column by its publisher, Robert E. Lorton, III, responding to what Lorton called "an unusual amount of concerned correspondence in regard to the future of this company and our industry." Lorton asserted that despite the difficult economy and general downward trends in the newspaper industry and the World's own staff cuts, the World remains profitable, with a healthy capital structure.^[5]

[edit] Competing Newspapers

• Tulsa Tribune (former)
• Greater Tulsa Reporter
• Urban Tulsa Weekly
• Tulsa Beacon

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tulsa World website
• Randy Krehbiel, "Tulsa World" at Oklahoma Historical Society Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (retrieved April 14, 2009).