The Oklahoma Publisher Official Publication of the Oklahoma Press Association www.OkPress.com Vol. 88, No. 3 www.Facebook.com/okpress 12 Pages • March 2017 INSIDE Oklahoman makes Editor & Publisher’s list NEW DIRECTOR AT HALL OF FAME: Joe Hight has of “10 Newspapers That Do It Right 2017” been named director of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of BY: NU YANG AND SEAN STROH Fame effective May 1. EDITOR & PUBLISHER PAGE 3 Reprinted with permission The Oklahoman has been named as one NEW INDUCTEES: Nine of Editor & Publisher’s 10 newspapers that journalists will be inducted into do it right. the Oklahoma Journalism Hall The 2017 feature puts a spotlight on of Fame on April 27. some of the biggest and brightest ideas PAGES 4-5 occurring in the newspaper industry. UPLOAD PRIMER: A Following is the section from E&P on tutorial on how to upload pages The Oklahoman’s entry. for OPA, putting the legal notice The Oklahoman code on legal notice pages and Circulation: 147,582 Sunday; why it’s important to all of us. 105,632 daily PAGE 11 When staff members at The Oklaho- DONATE TO ONF to receive man’s Newspapers in Education (NIE) this Will Rogers print. Details at program learned they were at risk of los- OkPress.com/will-rogers. ing nearly 30 percent of its funding last year, the team recognized doing one thing wouldn’t help – panicking. Instead, the group went back to the basics, outlining creative fundraising The Oklahoman’s Newspapers in Ed ucation team – Ashley Howard, Bailey Huntsman, Brooke opportunities revolved around community Marley and Angela Meade – on the 10-foot-tall, 27-foot-wide OKC letters sculpted by Hugh engagement. By the end of the year, fund- Meade in front of the Wheeler Ferris Wheel along the Oklahoma River. ing for the program exceeded $420,000, a 9.9 percent increase from 2015. “These people believe in our mission and nal for reinvigorating their approach to Ashley Howard, NIE educational ser- give both time and money to ensure its real estate with the launch of HomeStyle; vices and digital audience development success.” Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia, for manager, noted several key changes in Another popular new event introduced bringing the paper and 22 other local lead- how they approached fundraising, includ- by the team last year was the Cars for Edu- ers together as part of a year-long effort to ing refocusing their efforts on the paper’s cation show. Those who participated in the improve their community; Petoskey (MI) most loyal readers. car show had an opportunity to not only News-Review for amping up production “My theory is that when you’re talk- display their cars but compete against other of videos, photo galleries and interactive ing to your subscribers, you’re speaking auto enthusiasts in several different catego- graphics; Quad-City Times in Davenport, with people who already see the value ries. Attendees were treated to live music, Iowa, for creating a new beat structure, in consuming credible news information,” food trucks and a visit from the Thunder a content-driven redesign of the Sunday Howard said. Girls, the official dance team for NBA team newspaper and creation of new content “This makes it much easier to translate Oklahoma City Thunder. categories; Rockford (IL) Register Star for the importance of what we are doing for the According to Howard, NIE plans to host providing an opportunity for a series of students. We work off a model where they a golf tournament this year in addition to dialogues with the community; San Antonio can actually sponsor a student for an entire the luncheon and car show. (TX) Express-News for capitalizing on the semester.” “We found that most of our challenges city’s rich history and its NBA team; Straits NIE staff also began organizing com- came from a lack of personal experiences. Times in Singapore for the creation of Sin- munity events such as the Academic Excel- No one from our team had ever participated gapore’s first coffee festival where guests lence Luncheon, which helped raise more in a car show before so it took a lot of dedi- had the chance to interact with Times’ staff than $17,000. The special event recognized cation to attend a variety of shows and seek members; and Times of Northwest Indiana community partners and the program’s relationships with people that knew what in Munster for taking its Community Civil- sponsor of the year. they were doing,” Howard said. “We relied ity Counts initiative to the next level. While Howard acknowledged the funds on others to be the experts and carried out raised were significant, the relationships a large scale survey to assess where we can EDITOR’S NOTE: To read the full article on formed proved to be even more valuable. learn and do better next year.” newspapers that made the Top 10 list, go to “When we can establish meaningful rela- Other newspapers on the Top 10 List www.editorandpublisher.com/feature/10-news- tionships with sponsors we are forging of 2017 are the Albany (NY) Times Union papers-that-do-it-right-2017-achieving-growth-in- bonds that ultimately lead to an emotional for making a commitment to refocus on circulation-revenue-and-engagement/ investment in the program,” Howard said. their subscribers; Albuquerque (NM) Jour- 2 The Oklahoma Publisher // March 2017 the major stockholder. On July 1, 1999, news in Hollis and much of Harmon Casey and Karla Paxton, who had been County since there is no longer a news- CIMARRON TEXAS BEAVER HARPER owners and publishers of The Cheyenne paper published in that county. Star in Roger Mills County for several Dawnia Nalley serves as office man- ELLIS years, sold the Cheyenne newspaper ager for the Mangum Star-News but also and purchased The Mangum Star-News handles advertising and special features. from Hartman Newspaper, Inc. Casey is quick to note that there is ROGER As far as could be determined, Casey one other important staff member, his MILLS is the first Mangum High School alumni dog Hershey. She helps out on Wednes- BECKHAM to own the local newspaper. days, which is paper day. Each Wednes- The Mangum Star-News, operating in day, after the paper has been printed, BY OPA PRESIDENT DAYVA SPITZER GREER its 130th year, is now the only newspaper Hershey meets customers at the door Co-Publisher, Sayre Record in Greer County and is also the oldest leading to the back of the shop. They & Beckham County Democrat HARMON continuously operated business in the give her a dollar bill for the issue. Her- county. shey takes the money, runs back to Approximately eight other news- Casey’s office and jumps up on a chair papers have been published in Greer and then onto his desk. She drops the Mangum Star-News traces County over the years. money and is given a doggie treat. She The Paxton’s do a great job of cover- loves her job and folks enjoy coming into ing all areas of interest to their readers. the office to be assisted by Hershey. its roots to October 1887 Casey, in his 31st year of newspaper Due to health reasons, Casey’s wife work, shoulders most of the operations Karla is no longer able to work at the This month’s subject of western Okla- partner restructuring. Sometime around of the newspaper. School sports and news office, but has a computer at home homa’s weekly newspapers boasts the 1904, during the ownership of partners activities, county seat issues and agricul- connected remotely allowing her to help trivial fact of being the oldest newspaper Rufus C. Echols and G.B. Townsend, tural news comprise much of his edito- build pages as needed. in all of the western half of the state. the newspaper purchased its first type- rial space. Additionally, Paxton covers The Mangum Star-News traces its setting machine. Townsend traveled to ancestry all the way back to October of Brooklyn, New York, to spend a month 1887 when Major A.M. Dawson relocat- learning how to operate the machine. ed his George Washington hand press Eugene Pulliam owned a chain of from Vernon, Texas, to Mangum, estab- Oklahoma newspapers and purchased lishing The Mangum Star. the Mangum paper in 1929 and soon The first edition of The Mangum Star began publishing daily. Pulliam pub- campaigned for a community watering lished for approximately 10 years mak- trough to provide cowboys and settlers ing him the longest tenured owner since trading in Mangum the convenience of the publication’s inception. not having to carry water for their ani- The Star was purchased in 1941 by mals. The inaugural edition also bragged Ben and Betty Langdon and by 1949 about Mangum’s boarded downtown went back to being published on a week- sidewalks, selling the fact that “the fair ly basis. For several years the Lang- sex won’t soil their shoes.” dons printed The Mangum Star and The Only three years later, Dawson sold Greer County News. Soon they merged his publication, which maintained a sub- the two papers and it became the Mang- scription base between 200-300, to the um Star-News. Mangum Star Printing and Publishing In 1975, the Langdons sold their inter- Association, a group of 22 stockholders. est in The Mangum Star-News to a From that point until 1929, there were group of investors with Hartman News- at least 10 changes in ownership and/or paper, Inc. of Texas finally becoming Casey Paxton, publisher of The Mangum Star-News, with OPA President Dayva Spitzer.