Tulsa World turns 100

A Tulsa institution is celebrating a big birthday Wednesday. <br/><br/>News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says the Tulsa World turned 100 years old and in a century of major change, perhaps the biggest milestone,

Wednesday, September 14th 2005, 10:35 am

By: News On 6

A Tulsa institution is celebrating a big birthday Wednesday.

News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says the Tulsa World turned 100 years old and in a century of major change, perhaps the biggest milestone, is surviving it all.

It's impossible to write the "History of the World" and avoid the name "Lorton." And right now, the man on top of the Tulsa World, is publisher Bobby Lorton.

Terry Hood: "100 years and here you are at the helm. That's quite." Robert Lorton II: "Scary."

Lorton is the great-grandson of Eugene Lorton, who began publishing the paper in 1917. At first, Bobby didn't know if he wanted to follow in the family business, but he went back to school to get up to speed on the business side of the paper, and 16 years later, he's now the publisher of Tulsa's last-surviving daily newspaper. Lorton: "Normally it'd be a lot louder in here, everybody would have earmuffs on."

While technology has come a long way in 100 years, bulky machines still roar in the bowels of the building. Instead of the operation getting lighter, Lorton says the machines are larger and heavier than ever. Terry Hood: "Each of these rolls of paper weighs 2,000 pounds, and to print tomorrow's paper, they'll go through every single one of them."

The presses go through a roll of paper in just 15 minutes and stopping them is a rare event. Lorton: "We've only stopped the press probably once, where we had such a major, and it was during Bush-Gore election, and we actually had the plates that Gore had won."

At one time, headlines read that the only thing growing faster than the city of Tulsa come state hood, was the coverage of the Tulsa World and Bobby Lorton doesn't see things slowing down any time soon.