The News & Observer

The News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. It is based in Raleigh and also covers Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill. It is the state's second-largest newspaper, after The Charlotte Observer. The paper has won three Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 1996 for a computer-assisted investigation of the North Carolina hog industry [1].

The News & Observer Publishing Co. also publishes several weekly local newspapers, in Cary, Chapel Hill, east Wake County, and Johnston County. The newspaper became an online service provider and offered one of the first World Wide Web news sites with Nando.net in 1994. In 1995, the paper was bought by McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, California.

As of 2004, the publisher is Orage Quarles, who was once named publisher of the year. The executive editor is Melanie Sill.

History

The News & Observer date back to the Reconstruction. In 1880, The Sentinal was founded in Raleigh and as later observed by The Observer, which in turn merged with The News to form The News & Observer in 1880. In 1894, Josephus Daniels bought The News & Observer at a distressed property auction with the purpose of using the paper to support the state Democratic Party; 70 prominent North Carolina Democrats donated money for the auction. Daniels becomes the editor. His first edition was released on August 12, 1894, with a circulation of 1,800 (out of 10,000 in Raleigh) at $7 a year.

Daniels was editor of the paper until his death in 1948, and he made many prominent changes. He installed the first linotype machines, changed the typography, and took advertisements off of the front page. He wanted to change the named to The North Carolinian but was convinced otherwise because The News & Observer already had name recognition with advertisers and readers. During this time, though, the paper was dubbed "The Old Reliable" by salesman Wiley Rogers.

In 1898, The News & Observer and Daniels ran a racist campaign to reclaim the state legislature from a Republic coalition and helped to bring about the disenfranchisement of black voters. He later said he regretted his tactics and supported a number of progressive causes, like public education, anti-child labor laws, and banning alcohol.

In 1948, Daniels died and was replaced by his four sons. His son Jonathan edited the paper, and his son Frank was the president and publisher. In the 1950s, The News & Observer consolidated its position, buying The Raleigh Times and moving into a new headquarters at 215 S. McDowell St. in Raleigh, where it remains.

In 1968, the Daniels family hired Claude Sitton, who had been a correspondant for The New York Times and later an editor there. Serving as the editorial director of the paper, he promoted The News & Observer as a government watchdog and moved the news of the paper away from its personal and partisan stances it had taken under Josephus Daniels. However, its editorials are still aligned with the Democratic Party. A year later, the Mini Page children's supplement was created and published. Today, it is one of the nation's most widely used children's newspaper supplement.

In 1971, Sitton becomes the editor and the paper begings buying and publishing smaller local newspapers, starting with The Island Packet in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and The Cary News in Cary, North Carolina.

On March 16, 1980, a welder's torch started a fire and burned through all the newsprint threaded through the press, injuring three and caushing millions in damage.

In 1987, the staffs of The News & Observer and The Raleigh Times merged, and on November 30, 1989, the last edition of The Raleigh Times was published. In 1988, The News & Observer endorsed its first Republican candidate for statewide election, showing, perhaps, a distancing from the Democratic partisanship.

Throughout the early 1990's, The News & Observer divested itself of various local newspapers in South Carolina and the North Carolina mountains, and by September 1993, Sunday sales of The News & Observer reached 200,000 for every week. In 1994, the paper created Nando.net, becoming an Internet service providers and began publishing the NandO Times online newspaper.

On May 17, 1995, The News & Observer Publishing Company as sold to McClatchy Newspapers for $373 million, ending 101 years of Daniels family ownership. In the mid 1990s, Flexo machines were installed, allowing the paper to print 32 pages in color, at the time the largest color capacity of any newspaper in the United States.

In 1999, The News & Observer was named one of the nation's 100 best newspapers by the Columbia Journalism Review and one of the 17 best designed newspapers in the world by the Society for News Design.

External link

• The News & Observer