History of The Oklahoma Daily
The Oklahoma Daily began publication on Sept. 18, 1916, as a successor to The University Oklahoman with Willard H. Campbell serving as the first editor. The newspaper was published five mornings a week, but publication was suspended in the fall of 1918 because of World War I. Publication resumed as a semi-weekly Jan. 31, 1919, and went back to five days a week the next fall. In 1919, on-campus publishing began, using the university's flat bed cylinder press.
In the fall of 1921, the circulation for The Daily was 700, plus 200 mail subscribers, and by 1926, circulation had reached 6,000. Also in 1926, The Daily became a member of The Associated Press — the only college paper at that time with full voting and membership rights.
A poll in December 1946 showed that 72 percent of the student body read The Daily. In May 1956, a libel suit was filed against editor George Gravely and faculty supervisor Louise B. Moore. The suit was dismissed as groundless, but it marked the first time The Daily had been sued for libel.
The Daily moved into Copeland Hall — its current location — in the fall of 1958 (although the building didn’t get that name for three more years). In 1976, The Daily entered the computer age with a system that used video display terminals and a scanner to read typed copy. The paper was switched to broadsheet format in 1977.
The Daily's coverage of the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing was recognized nationally, as media from all over the world contacted its reporters for information. The Daily Staff put on a disaster-coverage workshop at the CMA/ACP convention in Washington, D.C. The Daily's Web site was actually launched on the same day as the bombing as a columnist for the Daily and about four of his Middle Eastern friends put up the site so people in the Mideast could find out about the bombing. Their relatives were wanting information since the first thought in the U.S. was that the bomber(s) were from the Middle East.
In 1997, The Daily's newsroom was moved into its current location inside Copeland Hall where the backshop used to be. (The Daily had been down the hall, around the corner.) Also in 1997, the Daily switched to year-long Editor-in-Chiefs.
In 2003, The Daily dropped The Associated Press wire service for a year after a contract dispute. Service was resumed in 2004 after The AP began charging an educational rate to all colleges and universities.
In 2006, The Daily's Web site merged with the Sooner Information Network (SIN) and formed a student portal, changing its name to the HUB. The thought behind that move was to make a "hub" of all campus information for students.
In the summer of 2008, the HUB was redesigned into OUDaily.com.
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