There is a new normal for newspapers in Oklahoma.

The Tulsa World has a new president – the third one in the last six years. And the liberal newspaper has been sold twice in that time period. The paper was sold by the Lorton Family who sold it to Warren Buffet (Berkshire-Hathaway) who sold it to Lee Enterprises.

What is going on?

Well, there are some developments.

Newspapers are paying the price for progressive propaganda and for blending news with opinion. Embracing new taxes, homosexual marriage, tribal gambling, recreational marijuana and other liberal topics are driving away readers in droves.

Advertisers are abandoning print because of the Internet and the departure of young readers. And newspapers generally are increasing subscription rates to make up the shortfall and that causes declining readership.

Another problem is that there are two basic ways to deliver a newspaper – by carrier or by mail. When the numbers drop, the carriers can’t make as much and they have to drive farther. And if you mail the papers, the news is not as fresh.

Politicians want full coverage in newspapers but they spend their ad dollars on TV, radio and mail. Groceries have cut ads in newspapers and now are even dropping mailouts and are emailing electronic weekly ads instead of mailing them.

On May 6, the Edmond Sun ceased publication and merged with the Norman Transcript. That is amazing considering that Edmond is a thriving city and Norman is 35 miles south of there on the other side of Oklahoma City.

Edmond Sun officials blamed the coronavirus and its impact on local businesses that were closed or damaged by the crisis.

The Edmond Sun was founded in 1889 – making it one of the oldest, if not the oldest, newspaper in Oklahoma.

The Edmond printing facility will continue to operate.

There are other changes as reported in The Oklahoma Publisher, a publication of the Oklahoma Press Association.

(By the way, the OPA is now sending electronic versions of the The Oklahoma Publisher for the first time ever due to the financial crunch of the coronavirus).

– The El Reno Tribune stopped printing its paper on May 29 and will be printed elsewhere. (A few years ago, the Oklahoman stopped printing its paper and contracted with the Tulsa World).

The El Reno Tribune will still publish twice a week but the printing switch resulted in three employees being laid off.

Pressman John Wiggins. who has worked for the Tribune since 1972, lost his job. The Tribune at one time printed newspaper in Yukon, Mustang, Piedmont, Okarche, Kingfisher and Hennessey.

The El Reno Tribune was founded in 1929. In 1943, Ray J. Dyer purchased it from Eugene Pulliam of Indiana.

• On April 30, The Ada News ended its Wednesday and Friday editions. They continue to offer news on their website on those days.
• The Duncan Banner has gone from a five days a week to three days a week, stopping publication on Wednesdays and Fridays.
• The Lawton Constitution dropped down to only five days a week on April 25. There are no editions on Monday or Saturday.
• The Poteau Daily News is no longer daily but is published only on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays. That paper has been around for more than a century.
• The Stillwater News Press has dropped its Wednesday, Friday and Sunday print editions. They are still putting news on their website on those days.
• The Tahlequah Daily Press has gone to three days a week – Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday – cut out papers on Wednesday and Friday.
• The Weatherford Daily News discontinued print editions on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during the coronavirus crisis.
• The Perry Daily Journal has discontinued its Saturday print edition during the coronavirus crisis.
• The Pauls Valley Democrat is now being published once a week on Wednesdays.

In other words, a lot of daily newspapers in Oklahoma are becoming weekly newspapers. And weekly papers that used to publish more than once a week have dropped editions.

Thanks to our loyal subscribers and advertisers, we have no changes planned for the Tulsa Beacon, Tulsa’s Family Newspaper. When we started 19 years ago, the plan was to become a daily newspaper but it turns out that if we had succeeded in that expansion, we probably would be out of business now.

This is not just occurring in Oklahoma. Newspapers all over the nation are reeling.

They are trying to beef up their websites and to generate more ad revenue from those sites. That isn’t working very well for most.

Many are charging for the content on their websites but that is a hard sell because so many papers offer free access to the news. It’s hard to sell something that you can get elsewhere for free.

Our website has always been free because we want to spread the news from the Tulsa Beacon. We cover things that other Tulsa media refuse to touch and our goal is to separate facts from opinion. And we don’t run ads on our website for products that we don’t think are good for people.

Is there any future for newspapers?

Some think that newspapers will become strictly electronic and that they will turn to non-profit status.

That is happening in parts of the country but they are almost exclusively funded by liberal foundations who seek to control the news.  These electronic papers claim to be unbiased but that is not the case.

Time will tell the impact once this Chinese coronavirus crisis has subsided.