- Tulsa World
Infobox Newspaper
name = Tulsa World
caption = Tulsa World's headquarters located in downtown Tulsa.
type = Dailynewspaper
format =Broadsheet | foundation = 1905
owners = World Publishing Company
headquarters = 324 S. Main
Tulsa, OK 74103
USA
editor = Joe Worley
publisher = Robert E. Lorton, III
circulation = 138,262 Daily
189,789 Sundaycite web | title=2006 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation |publisher=Burrelles"Luce" |url=http://www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2006_Top_100List.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2007-03-02 |date=2006-03-31]
ISSN =
website = [http://tulsaworld.com/ tulsaworld.com]The "Tulsa World" is the daily
newspaper for the city ofTulsa, 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 ofOklahoma . It was founded in 1905 and remains an independent newspaper owned and operated for four generations by the Lorton family of Tulsa.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. 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.Fact|date=April 2007For 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.Fact|date=April 2007 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." Fact|date=April 2007
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.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. The widow, Maud Lorton, had other ideas.
In the 1950s she 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 existeed 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 sonRobert E. Lorton III .Throughout its history, the Tulsa World has been critical of Oklahoma governors.Fact|date=October 2007
In the 1920s, the Tulsa World investigated the
Ku Klux Klan , which had risen to local prominence in the wake of theTulsa Race Riot in the spring of 1921. The newspaper identified the secret society's local leaders and the politicians on its membership rolls.Fact|date=October 2007The "World" contributes more than $1 million a year to local charities and eventsFact|date=February 2007. The Lorton family has also been a major contributor to local education, cultural and religious organizations.
Politics
The "World" has long associated itself with Democratic causes in the Tulsa area. The "World" endorsed the Democrats and Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936, but insisted that anything more than two terms amounted to despotism. In 1940, the "World" endorsed Republican Wendell Wilkie and has not backed a Democratic presidential candidate since.Fact|date=October 2007
Circulation
Only about 200 daily newspapers in the United States, out of the more than 1,100 published, are locally owned. Of those, only about a dozen have circulations as large or larger than the Tulsa World Fact|date=February 2007.
A Scarborough readership study from 2005 shows that the World reaches over 390,000 daily readers every five weekdays, and over half a million Sunday readers every four weeksFact|date=February 2007.
As of March 2006, the paper's circulation as reported by the
Audit Bureau of Circulations is approximately 138,000 for the daily editions and 190,000 for the Sunday edition.The Tulsa World costs $0.50 during weekdays, and costs $1.50 on Sundays.
Competing Newspapers
*
Tulsa Tribune (former)
*Greater Tulsa Reporter
*Urban Tulsa Weekly
*Tulsa Beacon References
External links
* [http://www.tulsaworld.com "Tulsa World" website]
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