Tulsa Beacon newspaper ready to take on the 'World'

Longtime Tulsans remember the days when this was a two-newspaper town. Could it be again? It's a daunting task. But as News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg tells us, one man thinks he can take

Monday, June 30th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Longtime Tulsans remember the days when this was a two-newspaper town. Could it be again? It's a daunting task. But as News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg tells us, one man thinks he can take on the â€˜World.â€™

Charlie Biggs sees some of the future of his newspaper in the past. "A lot of people are nostalgic about the fact when Tulsa had two papers.â€ For 72 years, the Tulsa Tribune was Tulsa's second major newspaper. It was bought out by the Tulsa World in the early nineties.

And like the vast majority of cities, Tulsa now has one major daily. But Biggs, who thinks big, has plans to make his paper, the Tulsa Beacon, into another daily. Of course, he knows, it's a big world out there. "They have 650 full-time employees, they have a nine-story building, they have millions of dollars in resources, so it's a real David and Goliath situation."

The Tulsa Beacon reads pretty much like any other newspaper. Biggs says they have a slightly conservative, Christian orientation. But rather than alter their stance to reach a bigger audience, he thinks the bigger audience is looking for them. "Y'know, Fox News is developing and during the war it had one of the biggest ratings, and so I think there's a conservative wave coming over the country right now."

Compared to the Tulsa World, the Beacon is a tiny, developing country, but even with just 10,000 subscribers, they say they could get the attention of advertisers and make a healthy profit. Right now, they only have 2,000, so they have a ways to go, but he thinks 10,000 is doable, and he thinks Tulsa needs a second daily newspaper. "It's always good to have more than one of anything. When you have two of a kind, there's more competition, and that just makes everything better."

In the meantime, he says they do well enough to keep the lights on. If you'd like to learn more about the Tulsa Beacon, you can log onto their website at www.tulsabeacon.com.