THE MISSING INK
Attention Gusher readers, we have interrupted your regularly scheduled Gusher to bring you this important message. You may have noticed that this week’, the banner on Page One looks a bit different. We have replaced the newspaper’s moniker “The Gusher” with “The Keystone Gusher”.
In August of 2020, we purchased the Drumright Gusher, a newspaper that was in danger of closing for good and, thanks to loyal readers, long-time subscribers, and an expanded coverage area, the paper is currently doing fine.
We built on the former owners’ complete coverage of Drumright sports and news, making improvements to content. We eventually transformed the paper from a singlesheet black and white to a multi-page (sometimes multisection) full color newspaper.
Reader response was great and things were on track, but a newspaper doesn’t run on readership alone. A newspaper relies primarily on advertising to keep the lights on and the presses turning.
During Winter of 2020 and Spring of 2021, COVID-19 had us all firmly in its grasp — the Governor had enacted shut down restrictions and it was becoming more and more difficult for Oklahoma businesses to do business.
On top of that, Drumright had evolved into an area where print advertising and supporting the local paper was not normal for most companies. Garnering enough advertising revenue from the local business community to keep the Gusher afloat was a failing proposition.
We increased our coverage efforts in Drumright, moved a half-page historical story called “Down at the Depot”, to Page 2 to create more front-page real estate — space to print photos and stories of area youth. Reader response was, for the most part, fantastic. We went to work on local advertisers and received a reserved response. The Gusher at the beginning of 2021, was not going to make it on its own. Shuttering the paper has never been an option. Leaving communities without newspapers and creating news deserts is not what we do here. If we were going to keep the Gusher printing at all, we knew we must broaden our search for advertising support. We did a little market research and gravitated toward Mannford. The Mannford community hadn’t had its own newspaper in years.
We thought we knew what it would be like to introduce a newspaper into a community that hadn’t had one in over a decade.
Turns out, we had no idea… the Mannford community opened their hearts, their minds and their checkbooks to enable the Gusher to provide coverage to area youth, keep them informed about the ins and outs of city hall and the school board, and let them know what’s happening on, in and around Keystone Lake.
We recently made the decision to add Keystone to the Gusher’s name and this week is the first time it appears in print.
One would believe that the perception in Drumright is that the Gusher is no longer covering the community. We get that a lot — this sentiment couldn’t be further from the truth. You may not see a Drumright story featured above the fold in every single issue of the Gusher, but I assure you Drumright Tornado sports and hard news from the City, Creek County and Drumright Schools is in the paper. In addition, you will find coverage of the communities and schools in and around Mannford and the Keystone Lake area — Oilton, Olive, Jennings, Hallett, Mannford and SandSprings.
Here at Cimarron Valley Communications, we have embraced our role of providing news and sports coverage to the Keystone Lake area and the pay-off for our readers is that the Mannford community now has a newspaper and the Drumright community still has a newspaper.
Subscriptions have increased for the Gusher everywhere and single-copy sales are increasing.
The Keystone Gusher is available at both Mini Super Markets, William’s Grocery Store and Dollar General in Drumright. It is also available at Happy Corner Convenience Store at SH 33 and S 433rd W Ave. near Olive. You can pick up a copy at the Lucky Trip on SH 33 and SH 48 as well as the In-n-Out in Mannford at SH 48 and SH 51. Pick one up at Phelps’ Market while you do your grocery shopping, or grab one at Mannford’s Daylight Donuts and have a cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee while you read up on local news you can’t get anywhere else.
We just made arrangements to have copies of the Gusher on sale at the Tank-n-Tummy along the Sand Springs Expressway on the Appalachia Peninsula.
It is also available at 99 Quick Stop in Jennings and Joe’s in Hallett.
If you are reading this, I’m preaching to the choir but, thank you, loyal readers of the Gusher. You make it possible to deliver local news and cover the young athletes at the high schools who work so hard.
Remember, it’s you the readers, and the Keystone Gusher’s advertisers who make this newspaper possible. Take care of those advertisers. Buy their goods, eat their food, use their fuel — keeping them in business keeps us all in business and that makes for a strong community.
Thank the advertisers within these pages for supporting your local paper.
Thanks for reading Shop Local