Jeff Mayo of Sallisaw was inducted last Saturday into the Oklahoma Press Association’s Quarter Century Club honoring longevity in the newspaper profession.
Mayo was inducted during the OPA’s annual convention, held this year at the Grand Casino Hotel and Resort in Shawnee.
Mayo began working at the Sequoyah County Times in 1980 at the age of 8.
Today, he serves as publisher of that newspaper as well as the six newspapers under the umbrella of Cookson Hills Publishers, Inc. — Eastern Times-Register, Eufaula Indian Journal, Henryetta Free-Lance, McIntosh County Democrat, Okmulgee Times and Vian Tenkiller News. Mayo and his brother Jack became owners of Cookson Hills after the passing of their parents, Jim and Becky Mayo.
A 1990 graduate of Sallisaw High School, Mayo earned a degree in community journalism from the University of Kansas in 1994, and a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1997.
He joined the Times in June 2003 as assistant publisher and general manager. He served on the OPA Board of Directors, and was president of the state association in 2013, following in the steps of his father, who was president in 1986, and his grandfather, Wheeler, who was president in 1944.
He was awarded the Daniel M. Phillips Leadership Award in 2010 by the National Newspaper Association, and is currently the vice chair of the NNA after serving as treasurer from 2020-22.
Mayo is a third-generation newspaper publisher, and five of the last six generations of his family have been in the newspaper business in Oklahoma, Arkansas and before Indian Removal in 1835 in Georgia.
He is also the 2018 recipient of the prestigious H. Milt Phillips Award, the highest individual honor given by the OPA.
