Newsroom consolidation has hit an Oklahoma newspaper that had been serving the community since the 1960s.
The Owasso Reporter published its final issue last month, the Examiner-Enterprise reports.
The weekly was folded into the Tulsa World following layoffs of the Owasso Reporter staff.
"Before COVID, I had a dedicated team of three," says Art Haddaway, the last editor of the Owasso Reporter, according to the Examiner-Enterprise. "The pandemic hit, and that's when the world went crazy, then it was just down to me."
Haddaway was laid off last September.
“It's heartbreaking," Haddaway adds. "I loved my job, I loved the
people, and I loved telling their stories--this is the reality of the industry right now."
Oklahoma has lost almost 30% of its newspapers and 66% of its newspaper jobs since 2004,
according to Northerwestern University's Local News Initiative, the Examiner-Enterprise reports.
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