The Fayetteville Observer

The Fayetteville Observer is North Carolina's oldest newspaper still being published. It traces its roots to the establishment of the Carolina Observer in 1816.

Editor E.J. Hale led the newspaper for 40 years through the Civil War, when Gen. William T. Sherman's Union army destroyed the Observers offices in 1865. The newspaper was re-established by the Hale family in 1883. Today, through decades of growth and change, the Observer remains as the flagship publication of Fayetteville Publishing Company.

W.J. McMurray established Fayetteville Publishing Co. in May 1923 to operate the newspaper. Mr. McMurray, a newspaperman from New York City, had bought the Observer that January from David B. Lindsay of Marion, Ind.

Four generations later, the company remains in the same family. The Observer is the largest independent newspaper in North Carolina and one of the largest family-owned papers in the country.

The publishers who have led Fayetteville Publishing are: Charles R. Wilson, Mr. McMurray?s brother-in-law, who served from 1924 until his death in 1949; Richard M. Lilly, Mr. Wilson's son-in-law, who served from 1949 until his death in 1971; Ramon L. Yarborough, Mr. Lilly's son-in-law, who served from 1971 until his retirement in 2000; and Charles W. Broadwell, a great-grandson of Mr. Wilson and grandson of Mr. Lilly, who succeeded Mr. Yarborough and is the company's current president and publisher.

Mr. Wilson, a native of London, Ontario, had previous experience in manufacturing. Mr. Lilly was a Fayetteville native and Wake Forest College graduate who practiced law before joining the newspaper. Mr. Yarborough is a Fayetteville native and graduate of the University of North Carolina. He served as the company's vice president and general manager before becoming the president and publisher, and he is now the chairman of the board. Mr. Broadwell is a Fayetteville native and graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. He started his journalism career at age 16and served as the newspaper's editor for 12 years.

A central figure in the company's family history is the late Ashton Wilson Lilly, the niece of Mr. McMurray, daughter of Mr. Wilson and wife of Mr. Lilly. Mrs. Lilly, who died in 2000, served for a time as the company's president and for decades as the chairman of the board of Fayetteville Publishing. The company has created an award in her memory for outstanding employees: the Ashton W. Lilly Spirit Award.

When a young Ashton Wilson and her parents arrived in Fayetteville in 1924, the Observer was published six days a week and had a circulation of about 4,000. The newspaper plant was on Green Street at the site of the old City Hall (now Fascinate-U Children's Museum). During Mr. Wilson's first year as publisher, the company built a new plant at 512 Hay St.

Fayetteville Publishing Co. remained at the Hay Street location, while carrying out several remodeling and expansion projects, until moving to the present Whitfield Street location in January 1978. The old newspaper property on Hay Street is now the site of the Airborne & Special Operations Museum.

Fayetteville Publishing continues to have a downtown presence: With the historic Liberty Point building at Bow and Person streets, which the company bought and restored, and with the giant oak tree at Hay and Hillsboro streets, where the company maintains ownership of that corner property.

Some key moments in the company's history include:

• The Observer expanded its publication schedule to seven days a week by beginning a Sunday morning edition in January 1957.
• Fayetteville Publishing established a morning newspaper, The Fayetteville Times, on July 2, 1973, while still publishing the afternoon Observer. The papers were combined on Sundays, and then in 1982 also on Saturdays. On September 1, 1990, the two newspapers were merged to form a bigger morning newspaper, the Fayetteville Observer-Times.
• In November 1993, the newspaper underwent an extensive redesign that resulted in additional sections and other content improvements.
• In October 1995, the Observer became one of the first newspapers with its own Web site, providing news and information over the Internet. The company's Web site has continued to grow since then.
• In 1997, the company began a $30 million expansion project that included the installation of state-of-the-art printing presses and the addition of 70,000 square feet of space in the production and packaging areas. Construction began in early 1998, and the new presses came on line in November 1999. This was the most expensive project in the company's history, reflecting the family ownership's commitment to quality and to the future.
• The new printing technology resulted in greatly increased color-printing capacity, among many other improvements to the newspaper. With this dramatic change, after more than 40 years of operating on its old printing press, the company in 1999 returned the newspaper to its historic name: The Fayetteville Observer.

The company has continued to diversify with the purchase of The Carolina Trader and Acento Latino publications over the years, among others, and the creation of Next! magazine, The Sandspur weekly newspaper and others. The company is involved in the advertising sales, printing and distribution of the military newspapers at Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base. With its new presses, Fayetteville Publishing Co. has also established a strong reputation in commercial printing for various publications in the Southeast.

In 2002, The Fayetteville Observer was named one of the 50 best-printed newspapers in the world in an international color-quality competition. Only 11 U.S. newspapers received this recognition.

The newspaper has received a number of other prestigious awards. In 2005, the N.C. Press Association selected The Fayetteville Observer as No. 1 in General Excellence among North Carolina's largest daily papers.

  True to its history, The Observer is dedicated to serving the community and its more than 70,000 readers throughout the Cape Fear region of southeastern North Carolina.

Click here to link to the Fayetteville Observer Website

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