The Charlotte Observer
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 The July 27, 2005 front page of The Charlotte Observer |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
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| Owner | The McClatchy Company |
| Publisher | Ann Caulkins |
| Editor | Rick Thames |
| Founded | 1886 |
| Headquarters | 600 South Tryon Street Charlotte, North Carolina 28202  United States |
| Circulation | 210,616 Daily 264,170 Sunday[1] |
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| Website: Charlotte.com | |
The Charlotte Observer, serving Charlotte, North Carolina and its metro area, is the largest newspaper, in terms of circulation, in North and South Carolina.
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[edit] Overview
The Observer primarily serves Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and the surrounding counties of Iredell, Cabarrus, Union, Lancaster, York, Gaston, and Lincoln. It publishes local sections for each of these outlying counties and for specific neighborhoods within Mecklenburg. The newspaper's circulation covers over 40 counties in North and South Carolina.
Circulation at The Charlotte Observer has been declining for many years. The most recent period (Spring 2008) showed a 2% decline in circulation and a 4% decline in revenue compared to the prior year.[2]
In addition to its main bureau in Charlotte, the paper operates six regional bureaus in Hickory, Gastonia, Concord, Monroe, and Cornelius, and Rock Hill, South Carolina. It has offices in the state capitals of North and South Carolina: Raleigh and Columbia, respectively. The Observer also has an office in Washington, D.C.
The newspaper has an online presence at Charlotte.com, and its staff also oversees a popular NASCAR news website, ThatsRacin.com, and a corresponding syndicated feature, That's Racin'. The paper's television partner is WCNC-TV.
The Observer employs over 1,200 employees, mostly in its Uptown Charlotte office. The Charlotte Observer has started layoffs and buyouts to reduce costs in an effort to survive the changing business environment for newspapers.
[edit] History
The paper was founded in 1869 and was purchased by Knight Newspapers in 1955. Knight merged with Ridder Publications to form Knight Ridder in 1974. The Observer eventually became the fourth-largest newspaper in the Knight Ridder chain (behind The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, Detroit Free Press and Miami Herald).
In 1959, The Observer purchased The Charlotte News. This combined all of their operations, in exception to editorial content, which was fused in 1983. The Observer ended circulation of the afternoon News in 1985.
The paper has won four Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 1988.
The McClatchy Company purchased most of Knight Ridder's newspapers, including The Observer, in 2006. This made The Observer a sister publication of the state's second-largest paper, The News and Observer of Raleigh; and of The Herald of Rock Hill, the primary newspaper for the South Carolina side of the metro area. Since the acquisition of the Knight Ridder newspapers, the value of McClatchy common stock (NYSE: MNI) has declined by over 80%.[3]
[edit] Pulitzer Prizes
- 1968 — Editorial cartooning, Eugene Gray Payne
- 1981 — Meritorious public service, staff; "For Brown Lung: A Case of Deadly Neglect, a hard-hitting look at the terrible health consequences workers suffered from cotton dust produced in the region's textile mills."
- 1988 — Editorial cartooning, Doug Marlette (shared with the Atlanta Constitution)
- 1988 — Meritorious public service, staff; "For its investigation into the misuse of funds by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and their PTL ministries."
[edit] References
- ^ 2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation (PDF). BurrellesLuce (2007-03-31). Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^ Audit Bureau of Circulations Editor & Publisher article
- ^ Yahoo Finance chart for McClatchy
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Charlotte.com official site
- That's Racin'
- Stepp, Carl Sessions. "Caught in the Contradiction", American Journalism Review, April/May 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- McClatchy subsidiary profile of The Charlotte Observer
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