The Oklahoman

The Oklahoman, formerly The Daily Oklahoman, was started in 1894 by Sam Small. After Small left the paper was owned by a stock company, then R.Q. Blakeney who sold it to Roy Stafford and W.T. Parker. Stafford ran the paper and eventually bought Parker’s share. E.K. Gaylord bought an interest in the paper from Stafford in 1903. The two men ran the paper with Stafford serving as president and publisher while Gaylord was secretary-treasurer in charge of business, advertising, and circulation. Eventually Gaylord gained controlling interest of the newspaper. The parent company, Oklahoma Publishing Company, or OPUBCO, purchased WKY radio in 1928. It’s first broadcast was an announcement that Herbert Hoover had been elected president. WKY-TV was established in 1949. After E.K. Gaylord’s death in 1974 his son E.L. Gaylord took over. Later E.L. Gaylord’s daughter Christy Gaylord Everest ran the paper before it was sold to Phillip Anschutz in 2011. In 2018 The Oklahoman was sold to GateHouse Media. In 1999 the Columbia Journalism Review named the Oklahoman the worst newspaper in America.