Johnson made these gains by modernizing the paper's plant, expanding its delivery system (and consequently enhancing Charlotte's reputation as a distribution center), and improving its news coverage and features. (That year, "Daily" was also dropped from the paper's name.) Under Johnson, the Charlotte Observer became the largest newspaper in the Carolinas, with circulation rising from nearly 13,000 daily (over 16,000 on Sundays) in 1916 to about 134,000 at the time of the publisher's death on 6 Oct. Johnson, owner of the Knoxville Sentinel and widely admired as a conservative southern publisher. They sold the Observer in 1916 to Curtis B. Wood, founders of the American Trust Company. After Tompkins died in October 1914, the paper was briefly owned by two bankers, George Stephens and Word H. His editorials, however, were never as forceful as Caldwell's often they were mere news summaries with scant opinion. In June 1912, a few months after Caldwell's death, Wade Harris was appointed the paper's editor, a position he held until his own death in 1935. Caldwell, as editor, maintained extremely high editorial standards, and by 1904 the Observer was considered the state's best newspaper. They promoted manufacturing but opposed labor unions, urged a diverse agriculture but rejected the agrarian Populists (who supported William Jennings Bryan for president), and befriended individual blacks but endorsed white supremacy laws that denied blacks the right to vote and ultimately produced a harsh segregation. The two men recruited a staff of fine writers and reporters installed the latest news-gathering and printing equipment broadened coverage to include books, music, drama, finance, architecture, and medicine and made their paper a vigorous advocate of education and industrialism. With Caldwell as editor and Tompkins as publisher, the Observer underwent an expansion that propelled it from country reporting to modern journalism. 1892 the Chronicle appeared without warning as the Charlotte Daily Observer. Tompkins, an engineer, financier, and promoter. When the Chronicle's fortunes began to decline, the paper was sold (in January 1892) to Joseph Caldwell, the former city editor of the old Observer, and Daniel A. The strategy worked, and the Observer ceased publication on 1 Aug. Hemby's paper soon switched to a morning daily in order to compete directly against Jones and the Observer. Hemby founded the Charlotte Chronicle (March 1886) as an evening alternative to the morning Observer. Acting on the advice of Democratic leaders, William S. He continued to openly fight against Democratic leadership and early in 1886 announced his candidacy for Congress as an Independent. Restless under the stand-pat policies of state Democrats, Jones editorially applauded the rise of independent journals across the country and the advantage they enjoyed over party newspapers. In the depths of the depression caused by the panic of 1873, the Observer was sold in the spring of 1874 to Col. Caldwell as city editor in 1872, greatly enhanced local and regional news coverage. Jones also introduced telegraphic news, replaced a hand press with a rotary press, and, by hiring Joseph P. ![]() Grady's Atlanta Constitution and Henry Watterson's Louisville Courier-Journal. They envisioned a reviving South, a conception soon embraced in the New South creed pioneered by Henry W. Jones's progressive editorials promoted industry and commerce, public schools, and public improvements. Smith, the last of the four founding printers to retain an interest in the Observer, sold the paper to Johnstone Jones, a lawyer and newspaper publisher. From the beginning, the Observer linked its future to that of Charlotte and the Piedmont Carolinas. Holden, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Nevertheless, the paper clearly disapproved of Reconstruction, the policies of Reconstruction governor William W. Unlike many other newspapers, this publication was politically independent and tended to avoid the controversies of the day. Their firm first issued the Observer on 25 Jan. A consistent advocate of economic progress in Charlotte and the surrounding region, the paper, in the mid-twentieth century, also became a strong voice for racial and gender equality in the South.Īt the close of the Civil War, four Confederate veterans and now-unemployed printers moved to Charlotte from nearby towns and began doing business as Smith, Watson & Company. The Charlotte Observer, founded in 1869, has the largest circulation of any newspaper in North Carolina.
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