Tulsa World

Republican activist James F. McCoy and Kansas journalist J.R. Brady published the first edition of the Tulsa World on September 14, 1905 at the time Brady was starting Tulsa World, he was also publishing the Indian Republican a weekly newspaper, which was previously edited by a con artist named Myron Boyle. Brady had bought the Indian Republican in 1905 and fired Boyle in the following year. Boyle borrowed $500 from Dr. S. G. Kennedy, ostensibly to pay some personal debts. Instead, he left town without repaying Dr. Kennedy. Brady was sufficiently successful establishing the Tulsa World that it attracted a Missouri mine owner, George Bayne, and his brother-in-law, Charles Dent, who bought and ran the paper for the next five years. and then, with financial backing from Harry Ford Sinclair, the sole owner and publisher in 1917. Page's newspaper, the Morning News, closed in 1919 after Tulsans approved a bond issue to pipe the water from Spavinaw. Eugene Lorton died in 1949, In the 1950s, 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 News Publishing Corporation, which oversaw the non-editorial operations of both the Tulsa Tribune and Tulsa World. In 1968, he became president of the Tulsa World and publisher upon Boone's death in 1988. The Tulsa Tribune ceased operations in 1992 and Tulsa World acquired its assets. In February 2013, the paper announced that it would be sold to Berkshire Hathaway's BH Media Group, controlled by Warren Buffett. On April 20, 2015, four Tulsa World journalists—including two nominated for the Pulitzer Prize—suddenly resigned their jobs to accept positions at The Frontier, a new online-only publication launched by the former World publisher, Bobby Lorton. In 2016, the World announced it would not endorse any candidate in the 2016 election, saying that the American people had been presented with "the least acceptable list of candidates for president in modern times." The paper had maintained its loyalty to the GOP after Eugene Lorton's death; it had endorsed the GOP standardbearer in every election since 1940. In November 2025, the World moved to a six day printing schedule, eliminating its printed Monday edition. ==Recent developments==

. In February 2013, the paper announced that it would be sold to Berkshire Hathaway's BH Media Group, controlled by Warren Buffett. In March 2008, the World closed its zoned suburban newspapers, called the "Community World," and laid off its 18 staff members. 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. On March 29, 2009, the World published a column by its then 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, that Tulsa World remains profitable and has a healthy capital structure. The World further reduced staff on March 1, 2011 by terminating eighteen employees, "the result of a company-wide evaluation by management of operational efficiencies." The World says "the reduction represents approximately 3 percent of its staff." Also in January 2009, the Tulsa 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 Tulsa World to cover routine news events." In mid-January 2009, Tulsa World filed a libel lawsuit against noted local blogger Michael Bates, Urban Tulsa Weekly, and the Weeklys editor and publisher, over a column Bates wrote for the weekly paper, in which Bates expressed doubts about the Worlds circulation numbers based on a 2006 report by the Audit Bureau of Circulation. On January 20, The Tulsa 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, but Bates remained a defendant. Tulsa Worlds decision to sue a competitor paper was criticized in a column by Slate editor Jack Shafer. 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. ==Notable staff==

• Mildred Ladner Thompson, former Tulsa World book editor and columnist == See also ==