New Executive Editor Announced

 Tulsa Today is proud to announce the selection of John A. Winters for the position of executive editor and vice president of the Tulsa’s premier local news service.

Winters, a native Tulsan with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Journalism and American History from Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA., began his professional career as a reporter for The Augusta (GA) Chronicle in 1985 on the police beat and quickly moved to government coverage for that daily paper.  

He covered the Savannah River Site ( SRS), a primary production source of nuclear materials used in atomic weapons and employing more than 24,000 area residents.  Winters was nominated three times for Pulitzer Prize coverage of the SRS and produced a 28-page special edition on SRS as the sole reporter.

 Winters later served as Washington D.C. Bureau Chief for the Chronicle, which is one publication of the media conglomerate Morris Communications.  Winters was then selected by Morris as publisher of The Juneau ( Alaska) Empire.  As the senior executive overseeing 55 employees in daily news production, he continued to win many Alaska Press Association and Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association journalism awards. 

 One project directed by Winters; a special 64-page tabloid “Between Two Worlds” a year-long effort reviewing the impact of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, was cited by the Chairman of Morris Communications as one of the company’s top journalism endeavors.

In 2000, he was named general manager of The Grand Island ( Neb.) Independent, overseeing 116 employees. He served on the editorial board and wrote a weekly column. While there, the newspaper won the state's "General Excellence" award, as well as numerous other journalism awards.

 In 2002, Winters became the director of Morris News Service to provide editorial content (news, editorials, features, entertainment and sports) to the 27 daily newspapers and several weeklies within the media chain (combined circulation exceeded 600,000).

  As online media continued to grow, Winters oversaw the design and construction of a national political web site, www.ActiVote.com and mirrored local versions of that national site throughout the Morris Communication network of local media outlets through the national election in 2008.

Earlier this year, Winters and his family decided to move back to Tulsa, their hometown. His wife, the former Corby Carlin, is a former Miss Tulsa, an OSU graduate and has a master's degree from ORU. They have three sons, affectionately known as the Sons of Thunder.

  As Executive Editor of Tulsa Today, Winters will be responsible for the development of original news, entertainment, sports, special interest columns, and opinion pieces.  He has worked behind the scenes at Tulsa Today over the last two months in the development of our new design and, yesterday, began reporting with a breaking story of ACORN’s effort to capture political control of the State of Oklahoma.

As Publisher of Tulsa Today, I will continue to write analysis on compelling issues of public concern, but I am delighted to have such a talented leader as  Winters direct our growing staff.

 As regular readers know, Tulsa Today is the oldest (est. 1996) and largest independent online local news service in the world.  In the beginning, as owner and publisher, I could have registered the domain under my name or a political perspective or any party, but that was not the point of publishing.  In Tulsa Today’s editorial opinion, Tulsa is the Center of the Universe, the Cosmopolitan Capital of Indian Territory and the Heart of America.  We live free and speak truth to power here to ensure that future generations may have an even better life in God’s Country.

 The more casual humorous take on this management expansion is that Tulsa Today has hired a Pulitzer quality news editor that we intend to feed red meat with plenty of steroids and a budget to turn-it-up in Tulsa.

 In my considered editorial opinion, national journalism failed America in 2008 by not properly vetting the fruit, flake and nut-cake administration of Marxists now in office.  We intend to fix that problem starting here and now.