It was founded in 1905 and locally owned by the Lorton family for almost 100 years until February 2013, when it was sold to BH Media Group,[2] a Berkshire Hathaway company controlled by Warren Buffett.

[5] Republican activist James F. McCoy and Kansas journalist J.R. Brady published the first edition of the Tulsa World on September 14, 1905[6] at the time Brady was starting Tulsa World, he was also publishing the Indian Republican a weekly newspaper, which was previously edited by a con artist named Myron Boyle.

[7] Brady was sufficiently successful establishing the Tulsa World that it attracted a Missouri mine owner, George Bayne, and his brother-in-law, Charles Dent, who bought and ran the paper for the next five years.

[5] Eugene Lorton died in 1949,[8] leaving majority interest in the newspaper to his wife Maude and smaller shares to four daughters and 20 employees.

[3] In 2015, BH Media bought six weekly papers and the daily Tulsa Business & Legal News from Community Publishers Inc.[13] On April 20, 2015, four Tulsa World journalists—including two nominated for the Pulitzer Prize—suddenly resigned their jobs to accept positions at The Frontier, a new online-only publication launched by the former World publisher, Bobby Lorton.

[3] Lee Enterprises announced an agreement to buy BH Media Group publications and The Buffalo News for $140 million cash on January 29, 2020.

[citation needed] In April 2011, the World introduced a metered model to its digital products that limits the amount of locally produced articles that a non-subscriber can view at no charge.

[19] The World further reduced staff on March 1, 2011 by terminating eighteen employees, "the result of a company-wide evaluation by management of operational efficiencies."

"[20] Also in January 2009, the Tulsa World and Oklahoma City's daily newspaper, The Oklahoman, announced a content-sharing agreement in which each paper would carry some content created by the other.

The papers also said they would "focus on reducing some areas of duplication, such as sending reporters from both The Oklahoman and Tulsa World to cover routine news events.

[23] Tulsa World's decision to sue a competitor paper was criticized in a column by Slate editor Jack Shafer.

[24] On February 12, 2009, the World reported that Bates had issued an apology and retraction, and that the libel lawsuit had been settled on confidential terms.