Behind Gaylord News

Oklahomans faced a dire situation in 2018. The last Oklahoma reporter in Washington, D.C., had retired, leaving our state without news representation in the nation’s capital. That was before two award-winning journalists and faculty members, Mike Boettcher and John Schmeltzer, founded Gaylord News later that year. 

“This all came about because of need. The need of Oklahomans,” Boettcher said. “There was no one covering our congressional delegation or issues important to Oklahomans.” 

From this founding came an Oklahoma-leading news outlet, turning mainstream media reporters into peers for Gaylord students. “Expanding Gaylord, we want to play at a national level. If we want to be the best journalism program in the country, we need to be in Washington. Number one: to serve Oklahomans. Number two: to serve our students,” Boettcher said. “John Schmeltzer and I created a news service. We created an Associated Press out of Gaylord College.” 

So, who are Mike Boettcher and John Schmeltzer? Mike Boettcher found his love for journalism at a young age. “I started in radio when I was 16 in high school. When I came (to OU), we didn’t even have a television program. When I was a junior, I won the state Associated Press award for investigative reporting. I was hired by Channel 9. My career got ahead of my education. Then, in 1980, CNN came calling.” 

Boettcher was the first CNN correspondent to ever report live from within the United States, but soon his talents would lead him into stories and conflicts abroad. He would go on to create and run CNN’s terrorism investigation unit. “I knew from the outset I wanted to cover political violence and global conflict. That’s why when I was here at OU, I studied Russian, I studied Spanish, and I was part of the first international terrorism studies program in the nation. I prepared myself knowing that I was someone that was going to go into those dangerous places. In 1980 when four American nuns were murdered CNN sent me to El Salvador, and I needed my Spanish. Fast forward a decade and I’m stationed in the East Bloc for NBC covering the fall of the Soviet empire. I needed my Russian.”

For John Schmeltzer, journalism was a favorable outcome. “I kind of backed into journalism. When I graduated from college, it was at the height of the Vietnam War. I got a newspaper job and three months later I was drafted. I was ordered to report to Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Long story short, the Army decided they didn’t want me at that time and sent me back home and then proceeded to lose my record, which was a good thing because I just went back to work at the place I’d been.” He would soon move on to the East Coast covering business and politics for a local paper in Lynchburg, VA. There he spent his time covering Washington, nuclear companies and desegregation in the Southeast. 

This work would eventually lead him to the Chicago Tribune, where he won a Pulitzer for his work as a lead writer and organizer covering the flaws in America’s airline system. “I walked into the editor’s office, and she told me she wanted me to organize this project about what was wrong with the U.S. aviation system. I couldn’t understand the assignment, frankly,” Schmeltzer said. Fifty-two editors, reporters and photographers organized and a whole lot of understanding later, Schmeltzer had solidified his name with Boettcher in journalism history. 

Using their experiences, Boettcher and Schmeltzer were able to create a media machine. Gaylord News “now has 72 newspapers, seven television stations, six radio stations and two online outlets that are clients. We’ve grown from nothing to that. I’ll get telephone calls from a television station in Montana asking if they can use this. ‘Well… go right ahead. Just make sure you give Gaylord News credit,’” Schmeltzer said.  

Boettcher knows what a platform like this means for OU. “This has been a game-changer for our students. Suddenly they’re looked at differently than just a kid coming out of college; they’re looked at as someone who’s worked on Capitol Hill chasing congressmen around, being able to network with national reporters working on the biggest news stage in the world,” Boettcher said. “We make this accessible to all students, not just students that come from means. We pay for everything because whether you’re rich or poor, we want you to have the same opportunities. That’s what differentiates us.”

When referencing the greatest example of Gaylord News’ success, Schmeltzer cites the 22-day-long fight last summer among House Republicans to determine their next Speaker. “All three Gaylord reporters were in the tunnels under the Capitol interviewing the Oklahoma delegation members just the same as was being done by NBC, CBS and Fox News…We are now recognized by the House and Senate press galleries as a mainline news organization, and we are credentialed for the political conventions this summer, and it looks like we’re going to be the only Oklahoma media outlet with credentialed reporters there.”

Boettcher, Schmeltzer and their students have worked tirelessly to ensure Oklahomans have a voice in our capital. “This isn’t for practice or fun. We have a potential audience of 4 million Oklahomans. We take it seriously. The university is supposed to serve the people of this state. That’s what Gaylord News does,” Boettcher said. “Any way we can, we’re determined to keep this going. It’s now one of the reasons that students come to school here. If we’re going to be a leading university in this nation, we’ve got to act like it.”

So, what’s the importance of Gaylord News? Why be a journalist in our chaotic world? “A chance to go and build something. We’ve worked hard, we’ve worked long hours, but I think it’s been a winner all the way around,” Schmeltzer said. Or, as Boettcher said, “You can’t have democracies and freedom without journalism. We give voice to the voiceless. That’s why I love my job as a reporter. I get to hear what people really feel. I’ve got a ticket for a front-row seat to history.”