Griffin Communications officers and workers dedicate their new house in downtown Oklahoma City on Friday. News 9 aired its first broadcast from its new dwelling Sunday night. (Photo by Kathryn McNutt)
OKLAHOMA CITY – Downtown Oklahoma City has a brand new media hub at 100 W. Main St. at a time when the nationwide media panorama is altering dramatically.
Local media firm Griffin Communications moved into the house over the previous six weeks and News 9 aired its first newscast from the situation Sunday night.
The former Century Center – which the corporate purchased, renovated and renamed 100 West Main – additionally homes The Oklahoman newspaper and the nonprofit news group Oklahoma Watch. The Oklahoman occupies a fraction of the house that it did when it first moved into the constructing seven years in the past.
Griffin officers on Friday devoted their newsroom, studios and administrative areas, which occupy not fairly half of the 100,000-square-foot constructing at what President and CEO David Griffin known as “the most important corner of downtown Oklahoma City.”
“All our employees are just so excited to be in downtown Oklahoma City,” Griffin mentioned. “It would not be possible without the investment that the people of Oklahoma City made in downtown.”
The firm obtained $2.7 million in tax increment financing incentives to relocate its company headquarters and the tv station. The transfer brings 240 jobs downtown, with a mean annual wage of roughly $100,000, Griffin mentioned.
Mayor David Holt mentioned having a tv news operation on the coronary heart of metropolis is “an integral part of a great town.”
“It’s great to see new life in this building,” Holt mentioned. “The energy that something like this brings to a downtown is pretty special.”
Nearly 10 years in the past town accepted $5.4 million in TIF funding to assist the Oklahoma Publishing Co. relocate its newspaper to the constructing. The firm moved about 350 workers into the house in 2015.
Holt mentioned many individuals have been optimistic in regards to the enterprise “and it lasted about five years.”
The Oklahoman was offered to New York-based GateHouse Media in 2018. The subsequent 12 months GateHouse merged with USA Today writer Gannett, turning into the nation’s largest newspaper firm.
This month, Gannett reported a internet lack of $54.1 million within the three months ending Sept. 30, in contrast with internet earnings of $14.7 million in the identical interval a 12 months earlier. The media firm expects a complete internet lack of $60 million to $70 million this 12 months.
In October, Gannett mentioned it might pause its 401(ok) match and most hiring, supply workers a voluntary severance plan and have employees take 5 days of unpaid depart.
“As policy, we do not comment on staffing numbers,” a Gannett spokesman mentioned when requested how many individuals are employed at The Oklahoman at this time.
According to information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 30,820 folks labored as reporters, editors, photographers, or movie and video editors and operators within the newspaper trade nationwide in 2020. That was down 12% from 2019 and 57% from 2004.
Pew Research Center studies newspapers have been hit onerous as an increasing number of Americans devour news digitally. The trade’s monetary fortunes and subscriber base have been in decline because the mid-2000s.
Local tv news programming has shed viewers over the previous decade, but it surely nonetheless garners extra viewers on common than cable and community news applications, Pew studies.
In 2020, native TV news noticed its viewers improve throughout the night and late-night time slots. Financially, native TV firms generated extra income in 2020 than in 2019, per a cyclical sample by which income rises in election years, in line with the report.
Griffin Communications closed on the downtown constructing in August 2021 for $16.1 million. Total price of the venture with renovations and gear was about $30 million, Griffin mentioned.
News 9’s new set consists of 83 screens and three studios – the primary studio, a second studio for shopper providers and an indoor/outside versatile house. A 20-by-40-foot TV is on the outside of the constructing going through Sheridan Avenue.
The news helicopter and pilot are primarily based at Sundance Airport close to NW 122nd Street and Sara Road.
News 9 aired its closing newscast Saturday from the constructing at 7401 N. Kelley Ave. that was its dwelling for 70 years.
The constructing was gifted to Langston University, the most important company donation within the college’s historical past. The present, valued at about $10 million, consists of the constructing, the encompassing land, all the present gear, furnishings, computer systems and the fiber-optic cabling.
The web site will develop into the house of the Center for Media and Community Advancement at Langston, funded partially with a grant from the Inasmuch Foundation.
“There is an entire business behind news production. From computer technology to marketing and sales, our students will have the benefit of learning here,” Langston University President Kent Smith mentioned.
The former Century Center was constructed within the Nineteen Seventies, devastated by the oil bust within the Nineteen Eighties, and spent a number of years almost vacant till an funding group bought the property and renovated it almost a decade in the past. Other tenants at present within the constructing are Mahogany Prime Steakhouse, Café de L’Asie, a YMCA department and SSM Heath Medical Group.
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