This Land

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Oklahoma’s First New Media Company

Michael Mason

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March 22, 2011

It’s official: This Land Press is now Oklahoma’s first New Media company, and we’ve just hired a veritable dream-team of Oklahoma’s top talents to make it all happen. Our growth has just been announced in a recent article published in the Columbia Journalism Review. Reporter Michael Meyer writes:

“Founded in the spring of 2010 by journalist and native Oklahoman Michael Mason, [This Land] has quickly established itself as a rare example of literary journalism on the community level… In many ways, This Land is reminiscent of fellow place-based publication the Oxford American, and Mason shares a number of traits with that publication’s fantastic editor, Marc Smirnoff. Both men manage to bundle risky editorial decisions into a highly refined finished product (call it the New Yorker with balls), and both have a talent for mixing anachronistically beautiful print[/caption] content with web features that are equal to (rather than derivative of) their print counterparts. But while the OA is a literary journal that takes the entire American South as its purview, This Land’s narrower scope and more journalistic bent allow it to provide a unique blend of civic boosterism and edgy social commentary. “

As of March of 2011, we now have some of Tulsa’s most daring and innovative minds united toward a single purpose: to chronicle life in Oklahoma through courageous, compelling stories. It’s a serious mission, so it’s only fair to introduce you to the people who are going to make This Land Press an important part of your community.

Mark Brown, a former editor at Tulsa World, is now This Land’s new managing editor. Award-winning filmmaker Sterlin Harjo and indie filmmaker Matt Leach will helm our videography projects, which will launch this summer. Columbia grad Denver Nicks, who recently signed a book deal based on his article “Private Manning and the Making of Wikileaks,” is now on board as our first staff writer and will continue to write and blog on Manning in addition to other topics. Book Smart Tulsa kingpin Jeff Martin remains our fiction editor, while radio producer Scott Gregory continues as our poetry editor. Our contributing editors include Lee Roy Chapman, Rebekah Greiman, Joshua Kline, Shawna Lewis, and Lindsey Neal. And you’ll continue to see great photography from the likes of Wall Street Journal contributor Shane Brown, Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Joe Marquette, and iconic portraits from Michael Cooper.

Our art director Carlos Knight makes This Land look the way it does; editorial assistant Claire Edwards sharpens every sentence; and office manager Courtney Campbell keeps our subscribers and distributors happy. Melissa Moss, our new sales manager, will introduce businesses to a new innovation in Oklahoma media—a place where you can buy a single ad and show up in print, video, audio and web. I’ll remain in place as editor-in-chief, and will play a personal role in developing special reports. Dean Williams, whose vision has helped guide This Land from its infancy, remains on board as an inspiring partner. Finally, I’m extremely proud to announce that Vincent LoVoi is our new publisher. His passion and support of great journalism promises to change the entire dynamic of Oklahoma media.

In the near future, we’ll be adding more recognizable names to our masthead, and we’ll make introductions when appropriate, but I thought it was high time you should know us from the inside. After all, it’s your story we’re telling.

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