There was a time when The Eagle had staffers whose chief duties were typing in oil drilling reports from across Kansas. That included Peggy Smith, an editorial assistant who works in the Business & Money department. Kansas has historically been one of the nation’s leading oil-producing states, and the oil and gas industry was a thriving sector. But as oil activity started to wane in the mid-1990s, the oil report disappeared from our paper. There just wasn’t much to report. That has changed in the last couple of years.
As oil prices have rebounded, so has the Kansas oil and gas industry. Reporter P.J. Griekspoor has written on the industry’s comeback, and the issues associated with that. Now we’re going one step further. Starting in tomorrow’s Business Today, we’ll have a page of coverage dedicated to the state’s oil and gas industry. The coverage will include a statewide drilling report (Peggy said typing up the report is liking riding a bike: you never forget how) plus coverage on business issues in the oil patch from P.J. It’s another attempt to enhance and broaden our business coverage in Business Today.
As always, we like to know what you think. Feel free to drop me a line.
Tom Shine
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