| Address |
600 S. Tryon St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
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| Description |
Mission Statement: We deliver what people need to discover and understand the region.
Founded: The first Charlotte Daily Chronicle, predecessor of today’s Charlotte Observer, rolled out on March 22, 1886, as a challenge from one faction of the Democratic Party to a bloc led in large part by the publisher of the Charlotte Daily Observer, founded in 1869. In August 1887, the overwhelmed Observer folded; in 1892, the Chronicle took its name.
Trumpeting the “New South” and the Charlotte region’s industrialization, the Observer thrived in the early 20th century. Two months before the 1929 stock market crash, its publisher, sensing danger, sold his NYSE holdings at a huge profit, amassing the cash to expand operations during the Depression by taking advantage of cheap newsprint.
The Observer was privately owned until the Knights bought it in 1954 for $7.225 million. Three years later, the Knights also acquired the afternoon Charlotte News, for $1 million. A new building opened in 1971 and helped spur a wave of uptown development that continues. In 1974, the Knight and Ridder newspaper corporations merged. The Charlotte Observer joined McClatchy in 2006 with McClatchy’s purchase of Knight Ridder.
Key Executives:
Ann Caulkins, President and Publisher
Rick Thames, Editor
Victor Fields, Vice President Administration, Finance, IT
Liz Irwin, Vice President Advertising
Jim Lamm, Vice President Circulation
Mark Webster, Regional Vice President for Human Resources
Ken Riddick, Vice President, Interactive Media
Chuck Griffiths, Vice President Operations
Taylor Batten, Editorial Page Editor
Cheryl Carpenter, Managing Editor
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