Blackwell Journal-Tribune

Overview

The Blackwell Journal-Tribune is a weekly newspaper in Blackwell, Kay County, Oklahoma, publishing local news, sports, obituaries, and opinion for Blackwell and its surrounding communities. It is part of the Reaves & Williams Publishing Group, publishes a weekly print edition with a digital edition, and is best known beyond its county for its building-by-building survey after the 1955 Blackwell tornado, which the National Weather Service used to map the damage (National Weather Service).

That tornado connection is what lifts this small paper out of purely local significance. On the night of May 25, 1955, an F5 tornado tore through the east side of Blackwell, and the paper’s staff did what no outside agency was positioned to do: they walked the wreckage, structure by structure, and counted what was damaged, what could be repaired, and what was gone. The Weather Service later smoothed that survey into the damage-intensity map of the tornado through Blackwell (National Weather Service). The paper’s own archive of that night — its May 26 front page, its Sunday survey, and its 2019 retrospective — remains the fullest contemporary local record of the disaster (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

Today the paper is a weekly. Its site lists print editions dated every Wednesday, most recently October 14, 2026, with sections for news, sports, obituaries, opinion, police and fire, celebrations, lifestyle and faith, spotlight, and a community calendar (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Its publisher is Tina Anderson, and its stated mission is “to strengthen communities by providing local news and editorial” (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

The 1955 tornado: witness, surveyor, and record

The tornado that defines the paper’s historical role struck during the Great Plains tornado outbreak of May 25–26, 1955. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down about eight miles west of Marland around 9:00 p.m., passed east and northeast of Tonkawa, and moved through the east side of Blackwell at 9:27 p.m., killing nineteen people in Blackwell and one person northeast of town, before dissipating southeast of South Haven, Kansas (National Weather Service). A second tornado from the same storm system went on to kill eighty people in and near Udall, Kansas in the 1955 Udall tornado; both tornadoes were rated F5 (National Weather Service).

The Journal-Tribune covered the disaster as it happened and then documented it systematically. In the days after the tornado, the paper’s workers surveyed the damage building by building, and the full report filled most of the front page and nearly all of the second page of the next Sunday edition: 85 structures “damaged but occupied,” 70 “extensively damaged” but repairable, and 190 “completely destroyed” (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The Weather Service confirms those same survey counts and says the survey data was smoothed and used to create its damage-intensity map of the tornado through Blackwell (National Weather Service). The paper also recorded that doctors at Riverside Osteopathic Hospital labored by candlelight and flashlight until patients could be moved, an account the Weather Service quotes directly (National Weather Service).

The paper’s 2019 retrospective, published for the 64th anniversary, drew on that archive and added the human record. It put the damage at $12.5 million and said the tornado wiped out 29 city blocks, with the area between Lincoln Avenue and Doolin Avenue west of B Street hit hardest (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Its May 26 front-page headline read “AT LEAST 17 DIE IN TORNADO,” and the retrospective names seventeen Blackwell victims while noting that some accounts put the later death toll at 21 (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Around 200 more people were injured (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The retrospective also records that two of Blackwell’s main employers were wrecked: the Hazel Atlas Glass Company factory was demolished and never reopened, costing the city nearly 200 jobs, while the Acme Foundry was destroyed but eventually rebuilt (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

The recovery coverage is part of the same record. The paper reported that National Guard crews arrived with dump trucks to help clear debris, that martial law was declared, and that fire and police departments from across the area converged on the town, while the American Red Cross provided shelter for people displaced by the tornado (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Its city editor at the time, Warren Bickford, wrote a front-page editorial describing his own family’s narrow escape and his guilt at being spared (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Decades later, longtime publisher Dayle McGaha used the 1989 anniversary to warn readers that they could “never be too prepared” (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

The sources do not agree on every number, and this profile does not smooth over the gaps. The Weather Service counts nineteen killed in Blackwell plus one northeast of town, while the paper’s own retrospective names seventeen victims and notes claims that the toll later rose to 21 (National Weather Service; Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The paper’s $12.5 million damage estimate sits above the Weather Service’s separate accounting of $8 million in property damage plus $15,000 in crop damage (Blackwell Journal-Tribune; National Weather Service). And the paper’s “29 blocks wiped out” and the Weather Service’s “approximately 80 blocks damaged or destroyed” measure different things — total destruction versus any damage — so they are complementary rather than contradictory (Blackwell Journal-Tribune; National Weather Service).

Ownership: from American Hometown to Reaves & Williams

The paper’s modern ownership history is documented by trade and wire reporting rather than by the paper itself. In December 2005, the Associated Press reported that Nashville-based American Hometown Publishing had bought the 2,690-circulation Blackwell Journal-Tribune and the 2,750-circulation Guthrie News Leader, describing both as independently owned dailies (Associated Press). American Hometown, newly formed to acquire and manage community newspapers of 25,000 circulation or less, offered business, marketing, and revenue expertise while leaving hiring and community relations to local executives; its chairman and CEO was Dan Hammond, founder of the newspaper supplement American Profile (Associated Press). The following year, Editor and Publisher described American Hometown as owning and operating daily newspapers in Blackwell and Guthrie, Oklahoma (Editor and Publisher).

The Associated Press’s 2005 circulation figure of 2,690 is the only independently verified circulation number this profile found, and it carries an implication worth stating plainly: a paper of that size is a county-seat institution, not a regional daily, which is exactly why its own staff’s door-to-door tornado survey became the authoritative local record rather than any outside agency’s (Associated Press).

The current owner is the Reaves & Williams Publishing Group (RWPG). In July 2024, Editor and Publisher listed the Blackwell Journal Tribune among RWPG’s newspapers, alongside the Marlow Review in Oklahoma, the Coalfield Progress, the Dickenson Star, and The Post in Virginia, The Current in Kentucky and Tennessee, the DeWitt Era Enterprise in Arkansas, and four Missouri papers (Editor and Publisher). RWPG is a family-run company led by Clarissa Reaves-Williams and Herbert Williams, who describe community newspapers as the “soul of the community” and pair print with Hometown Digital Marketing Agency services for advertisers (Editor and Publisher). The group’s own site lists the Blackwell Journal-Tribune as its Kay County, Oklahoma, paper (Reaves & Williams Publishing Group), and the paper’s subscription policy states that, effective January 1, 2025, it operates under its ownership program with RWPG (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). That policy also created a Community Access Program, under which a cancelled subscription’s unused value can be donated to support local schools, libraries, businesses, churches, and nonprofits (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). No independently reported account of when or on what terms the paper passed from American Hometown to RWPG was found, so this profile does not state a transfer date.

The paper today

The Journal-Tribune is a weekly newspaper with a print edition and a digital edition. Its editions page lists weekly print editions every Wednesday through October 14, 2026, plus special editions such as a homecoming tab (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). That weekly cadence is a change from its earlier history: a surviving issue from May 24, 1957, catalogued through the Gateway to Oklahoma History, shows the paper publishing as a daily under the title Blackwell Daily Journal-Tribune (Digital Public Library of America), and the Associated Press still described it as a daily in 2005 (Associated Press). When the daily-to-weekly change happened is not documented in any source this profile read, and it is listed as an open item.

The current staff named on the paper’s contact page are publisher Tina Anderson, Kris Wayman on classifieds and circulation, and staff writers Charles Gerian and Jordan Green (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The paper’s physical address is 223 E. Blackwell Street, Blackwell, Oklahoma 74631, with a mailing address of PO Box 760, and its phone number is (580) 363-3370 (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Print subscriptions including online access cost $47 a year for Kay County residents, $49 for other Oklahoma residents, and $51 elsewhere; online-only access is $35 a year (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The site also offers breaking-news alerts by text message (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

The paper’s archive reaches well beyond living memory. Newspapers.com lists 142,696 searchable pages of the paper from 1923 to 1963, with predecessor titles Blackwell Morning Tribune and Blackwell Daily Journal and Tribune, and notes that the papers were made available courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society (Newspapers.com). The Gateway to Oklahoma History holds individual issues, including the May 24, 1957, daily edition described above (Digital Public Library of America). Those archives, together with the paper’s own retrospective reporting, are why a small-town weekly continues to be cited in federal accounts of one of the deadliest tornado nights in Oklahoma history.

Period	Frequency	Owner / group	Verified circulation
1957 (surviving issue)	Daily, as Blackwell Daily Journal-Tribune	Not verified	Not verified
2005 (Associated Press)	Daily	American Hometown Publishing	2,690
2006 (Editor and Publisher)	Daily	American Hometown Publishing	Not stated
2024–2026	Weekly print edition + digital edition	Reaves & Williams Publishing Group	Not independently verified

FAQ

Is the Blackwell Journal-Tribune still publishing?

Yes. Its site lists weekly print editions every Wednesday, most recently October 14, 2026, alongside a digital edition and daily online news, obituaries, sports, and opinion (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). It operates under the Reaves & Williams Publishing Group’s ownership program (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

Who owns the Blackwell Journal-Tribune?

The Reaves & Williams Publishing Group, a family-run community-newspaper company led by Clarissa Reaves-Williams and Herbert Williams (Editor and Publisher). The group’s own site lists the paper as its Kay County, Oklahoma, title. The paper previously belonged to American Hometown Publishing, which bought it in 2005 (Associated Press).

Why is the paper cited in tornado research?

Because its staff conducted a building-by-building survey after the May 25, 1955, tornado, counting 85 structures damaged but occupied, 70 extensively damaged but repairable, and 190 completely destroyed (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The National Weather Service used that survey to build its damage-intensity map for Blackwell (National Weather Service).

How far back does its archive go?

Newspapers.com lists 142,696 searchable pages from 1923 to 1963, including predecessor titles Blackwell Morning Tribune and Blackwell Daily Journal and Tribune (Newspapers.com). Individual issues, such as a May 24, 1957, daily edition, are also held through the Gateway to Oklahoma History (Digital Public Library of America).

What does a subscription cost?

Print subscriptions including online access are $47 a year in Kay County, $49 elsewhere in Oklahoma, and $51 outside the state; online-only access is $35 a year (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). Cancelled subscriptions are not refunded, but unused value can be donated to the paper’s Community Access Program (Blackwell Journal-Tribune).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim a founding year for the paper. A widely repeated account holds that the modern paper resulted from a 1939 merger of the Daily Tribune and the Blackwell Journal, with roots in a Daily World first published in 1915 — but that account traces to a single archived first-party “about us” page that is no longer live, and no independent source read for this profile verifies it, so it is not asserted here. It does not claim a current circulation figure: the only verified number is the Associated Press’s 2,690 from 2005. It does not state when the paper moved from daily to weekly publication, or when or on what terms it passed from American Hometown Publishing to Reaves & Williams Publishing Group, because no source read for this profile documents those transitions. It does not cover the paper’s editorial positions, endorsements, or awards, none of which were documented in the sources read. It does not assert a publisher between Dayle McGaha, named in the paper’s 2019 retrospective, and Tina Anderson, named on the current contact page. Finally, this profile is about the Blackwell, Oklahoma, newspaper only; it is not about any other publication that has used the name Journal-Tribune elsewhere.