The two oldest consecutively operating businesses in Frederick have joined forces.
The Frederick Press and The Frederick Leader have become one newspaper.
The result of this combination means a bigger and better community newspaper, The Frederick Press-Leader.
And while the name has changed, the people have not.
Ray Wallace, former publisher of The Press, and Jennifer Grice, former General Manager and Advertising Manager of The Leader, along with Barbara Tucker, Kayla Challacombe and Jay McPherson will be at the new weekly paper.
Wallace, as General Manager and Editor and Grice, as Advertising Manager, Tucker and Challacombe handling office duties and McPherson getting all the sports news.
The Press-Leader will bring you more in-depth coverage of local news while our advertisers will be reaching a larger audience.
Subscribers need not be concerned as all subscriptions will be honored, as well as those with dual subscriptions to the former papers will have their expiration date extended accordingly.
The new newspaper, owned by Heartland Publications, will continue the time-honored tradition of its two predecessors.
The Frederick Press first hit the streets of Frederick in 1903 with the Frederick Leader following close behind in 1904.
The Press was founded as the Free Press by Pete Boyle and Jack Tracy of Lawton.
In December of 1903, the weekly was bought by R.H. Wessel and George A. Ahern, a Frederick lawyer.
Wessel became the sole owner several years later after Ahern’s death.
Wessel was reporter, editor, printer and publisher of The Press all of his life, and he became so widely known in Oklahoma newspaper circles that he was given the title of “The Editor” by his publisher acquaintances. Wessel was named president of the Oklahoma Press Association in 1917. At the time of his death in 1956 he was eighty-two years old and the oldest active editor in Oklahoma.
Fred Wessel succeeded his father as owner and publisher of the Press. Joe Miller bought the paper from him and was editor and publisher until his death. His wife sold the paper to Felisha Crawford and in 2000 she sold the paper to Ray Wallace.
The Frederick Leader was established as a weekly by J.C. Bayne. Bayne was succeeded by the partnership of George H. Phillips and W. D. Martin. In 1910 John L. Newland bought out Phillips, and in 1917 R.M. Simmons purchased the Martin shares. Then in the 1920’s Newland bought out the Simmons interests, and he then owned controlling interest in the Leader. At one time during World War I and the Burkburnett, Texas oil boom, the Leader published both morning and evening editions, serving a large area in southern Oklahoma and north Texas.
The weekly Leader became a permanent daily paper, the Frederick Daily Leader, following World War II.
Bob Cull, who had worked on the Leader since the age of nine, purchased one-fourth interest in the paper in 1939 and was named managing editor. He was named the Leader’s editor after the death of Newland.
Ken Reid and Ed Burchfiel bought the Leader in 1965. The sold it to the Donrey Media Group in 1967. The property was sold to Community Newspapers Holdings Inc. in 1998.
The current owners, Heartland Publications, purchased the Leader in 2004.
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