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'''The Charlotte Observer''', serving Charlotte, North Carolina and its metro area, is the largest newspaper, in terms of circulation, in North and South Carolina.

Contents

Overview

History

Pulitzer Prizes

References

See also

External links

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 2007) showed a 1.2% decline in circulation compared to the prior year. Audit Bureau of Circulations ^[2]
In addition to its main bureau in Charlotte, the paper operates six regional bureaus in Hickory, Gastonia, Concord, Monroe, and Statesville, 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 downtown Charlotte office.
Generally, ''The Observer'' takes a liberal editorial stance, and usually endorses Democratic candidates.
A new and exciting feature of the Observer is the creation of Observer Hit Unit or OHU as it is called. Due to the many cuts in staff they are using the handful of writers and investigators to search the internet, and services on the internet which pull public records and seek out anything in the past of anyone this OHU is interested in placing a HIT on. Penis. Yes everything they publish is true and salacious and on the front page. (After all everyone has something to hide) This new focus of the Observer is bound to be a big hit and will send sales through the roof. The name of this unit is a play on the Owe You One, which is the vengenge they will extract to anyone who challenges the needs of the Center City, big businesses and Big Government here in Charlotte. With this Fourth Estate watching over the people with power in Charlotte or should we say working with, can Charlotte do anything but grow?

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.''
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 main newspaper for the South Carolina side of the metro area.
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.

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."

References

1. 2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation
2. Editor & Publisher article

See also

★ Rich Oppel

★ Jack Betts (journalist)

External links

★ Charlotte.com official site

★ That's Racin'

★ Caught in the Contradiction Carl Sessions Stepp

★ McClatchy subsidiary profile of ''The Charlotte Observer''