GTR Publisher Honored by EA, Tulseys
By DAVID JONES
Editor at Large
ENERGY ADVOCATE: Mark Stansberry of the Energy Advocates, right, presents GTR Newspapers Publisher D. Forrest Cameron with the Energy Advocate of the Year Award for Journalism at the Petroleum Club in Tulsa in November 2010. At left is Energy Advocates Chair Tina Bonner. The annual award is presented by the Energy Advocates to individuals and corporations that make a difference in regard to the energy industry and/or energy policy.
Courtesy Energy Advocates
D. Forrest Cameron, editor and publisher of the Greater Tulsa Reporter Newspapers, has received two major awards.
Dr. Cameron, whose Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Kentucky was entitled “A Study of Energy Communicators,” received the Energy Advocate of the Year for Journalism award from The Energy Advocates, which is given to individuals and corporations that make a difference in regard to the energy industry and/or energy policy.
The individual award was given to Oklahoma First District U. S. Rep. John Sullivan. Sullivan became only the third member of the U.S. House of Representatives to win the award. One of the others was former representative and now Gov. Mary Fallin.
Cameron’s interest in petroleum policy has been reflected both in his university studies and in the Greater Tulsa Reporter Newspapers he publishes: The Union Boundary, Midtown Monitor, Jenks District Gazette, Broken Arrow Express, Owasso Rambler and Bixby Breeze.
Under his guidance, the newspapers have run a host of articles about the energy industry and recently printed a series of 21 articles by contributors Nancy K. Owens and Charles Cantrell highlighting both the history of petroleum in Greater Tulsa and the present state of the oil industry.
“We have large supplies of petroleum, natural gas and coal in America, and we should continue to develop them to insure economic progress in the future. I’m disappointed to see our energy future being politicized.”
Cameron was also awarded the “Legend” Tulsey Award for entrepreneurship, held in November at Cain’s Ballroom. He began the chain with The Union Boundary in 1993, which covers the Union School District. Since then his news group has expanded to five other editions.
His interest in newspapers began in the fifth grade when he started a neighborhood newspaper in Tulsa, typing them out on a typewriter and then hawking them to the neighbors at a penny each. He would avidly read The Tulsa World and Tulsa Tribune and would dream not just of being a journalist, which he considered fine as far as it went, but a publisher as well. “As I got to high school and started looking at what I wanted to major in at college, I found there were a lot of journalism programs but no programs in publishing, so I majored in economics.” He holds a from the University of Tulsa.
“My father traveled a lot on business and he would always bring me back a front page from a paper in every city and town he visited.
“One thing led to another and in 1976 I became editor of a weekly paper in Pikeville, Ky. called the Appalachian News-Express.”
The Cameron family moved back to Tulsa in 1985. He says, “After returning to Tulsa, we moved into the Union School District. I found that the people in Union felt they weren’t getting the newspaper coverage they needed. When I asked them if they thought a paper based on their district was desirable, every person I talked to said ‘yes’.”
“Soon after we launched the paper in 1993 the Tulsa World launched the Community World, and that changed the focus of what we were doing; we had to expand. In 1995 we started editions in Midtown and Jenks. We made the decision to have each paper cover a specific school district. The rest is history.
“People tell us they like us because not only do we cover local entities but we try to present the news in a positive manner. Our motto is ‘we support a Greater Tulsa’ and we mean it. We’re Oklahoma’s largest monthly news group and we have an easily accessed website.”
In addition to his newspaper work, he has been executive director of College Advancement at the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, director of Development at Monte Cassino Schools in Tulsa, and coordinator of Energy and Reclamation Studies at Morehead State University in Kentucky.
Cameron is a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communica-tion and has served on the Family Owned Business Institute at the University of Tulsa, the Tulsa Metro Chamber Small Business Advisory Council and is a member of various area Chambers of Commerce. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Tulsa and past-president of the Tulsa Green Country Rotary Club.
In 1999 he was named the Tulsa Metro Chamber Small Business Media Advocate of the Year.
Updated 02-18-2011
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