Hello OU and Norman,
Since 1916, OU Daily has served as the university’s news source. More recently, our organization has broadened our coverage to include the city of Norman, where we have made strides to cover our local government, arts scene, high school sports, business and more.
As 2023 and this semester close, I thought it was about time to introduce myself and tell the story of how this organization has evolved over the past year and our plans to evolve even more.
OU Daily 2023-24 editor-in-chief Karoline Leonard.
As editor-in-chief, I have thought long and hard about how we cover our communities, both on campus and in the greater-Norman area. As students, we live in this city, so its news matters to us just as much as news about the most recent Sooners win or the new dean searches.
A broader effort started by 2022-23 editor-in-chief Jillian Taylor brought our focus onto the city of Norman, where over the past semester we have boosted our efforts to tell the stories of new restaurants, crime rates, homelessness and a proposed entertainment district with unknown financial details. Our staff has worked long and hard to make this a reality, but our work doesn’t stop there.
For decades, OU Daily has held those in power accountable. From investigating the turmoils, accusations and resignations of university presidents to the racist behavior of some Greek organizations, we have brought to light some of OU and Norman’s darkest times.
But how can OU Daily hold others accountable, if we’re not doing the same for ourselves? How can we best serve our readers, listen to their needs and be a trustworthy news source in this city and state?
In November, OU Daily was chosen among 12 other Oklahoma news outlets in a $100,000 project aiming to cultivate trust in local journalism. This grant, we hope, will help us address those questions and best serve you, our audience.
First, OU Daily’s news and culture desks started source diversity tracking earlier this semester to hold ourselves accountable and better understand how we’re covering the OU and Norman communities. We are taking responsibility for how our organization interacts with the community to be sure we’re shedding light on all facets of the city and campus communities.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute and Chalkbeat’s source diversity tracking tool came out of a partnership that researched source diversity auditing. In accordance with professional best practices, our reporters are sending short surveys to sources who speak with our staff that ask questions about race, current gender identity and sexuality, age, whether a person is or is not transgender and zip code. All questions on the survey are optional.
Individual survey results will only be available to staff and will not be shared publicly. In order to be transparent, OU Daily plans to release broad data points about our efforts to collect diversity information, but this information will not include names or personal contact information of sources.
The grant through the Oklahoma Media Center will allow us to track our source diversity, analyze and share our findings and results. This data will help inform our organization about how we can better serve the OU and Norman communities and how we’re reaching and offering opportunities to all demographics. We hope with this data we can make informed decisions, bring light to historically underrepresented groups and continue to improve our organization.
Along with source diversity tracking, OU Daily is planning on hosting forums to bring more information on topics such as the proposed $1 billion entertainment district in University North Park, to the community. With these forums and other avenues, such as polling and listening sessions, we hope to bring more information and clarity to our audience while also understanding what our audience needs and wants from our coverage.
We are also transforming our social media strategies, which can already be seen through our new Instagram templates. We are hoping to boost our postings and bring more audience to our stories through our social media pages: X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Threads.
With this grant, our staff is also able to dive deeper into our branding, marketing and fundraising efforts. We opened a temporary merch store that closed earlier this month, and we hope to resurface with more designs later in the spring semester. We also have begun filming testimonials, day-in-the-lives and more with members of our staff to help tell the story of the Daily ahead of OU Giving Day.
Over this winter break, our staff is also updating bios on our website to include our personal mission statements regarding our reporting, photography, videography and more. We hope these mission statements and new headshots will help tell the story of the students behind the Daily, the work they provide and the reasons why they do what they do. We are members of the OU and Norman communities, and we hope these bios help our audiences know us better.
With these changes, upgrades and more, our staff will continue to provide important journalism, deep reporting and content for our communities.
Over the next few weeks of winter break, our staff will continue covering the busy transfer portal season, OU’s bowl game, the proposed entertainment district, Norman City Council meetings, university policy updates and changes and OU Board of Regents meetings. Our news podcast, News Beat: From OU Daily, and our news and sports newsletters are on hiatus until the week of Jan. 16. Staff will also work on OU Daily's print publications, including Spring Sports Guide, Best of Oklahoma and the spring and summer editions of the magazine.
As editor-in-chief, I am proud of this newsroom, my staff and the wealth of updates and improvements we are able to make. With the source diversity tracking, we hope we can be transparent with our audience about our findings.
OU Daily has long been and plans to continue to be one of the leading and most progressive newsrooms in Oklahoma and the nation, and I am excited to introduce new ways we can accomplish that goal.
Happy holidays,
Karoline Leonard, OU Daily editor-in-chief
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