When Monday’s edition of The Fayetteville Observer finishes rolling off the press Sunday evening, we’re losing part of our family.
The Observer, starting with Tuesday’s edition, will be published at The Gaston Gazette in Gastonia.
This won’t change anything for our subscribers. You’ll still receive your Fayetteville Observer on the same schedule as you do now.
More:Sunday Night, The Fayetteville Observer will be the last stop for The Fayetteville Observer’s printing presse.
And the newsroom isn’t going anywhere. We’ll continue to work here in Fayetteville, where we live and are part of the community.
So, what’s different — why does it matter?
Family — and a long, proud history. We’re losing nearly 60 people who work in our press department. We’re losing an operation we’ve kept running for 200 years, a press once among the greatest in the world.
The fact that our press is closing isn’t unique — consolidation of print services is happening industrywide. But that doesn’t make it any less sad or any less of a loss for those of us who love this paper.
I’ll be there for Fayetteville’s final press run, and I know it’s going to be emotional — especially for the people who have worked so hard, day in and day out, to put out the Observer and other papers that are printed here.
To all the people in the press section, I would like to express my deepest gratitude. We are grateful to all those who worked with us over the years. You are all greatly appreciated.
Ex-workers share their thoughts
We asked current and former Observer employees to share the memories of our press and the people who ran it.
Below are some examples of their responses.
Mae McEachern, Raeford, was an inserter in The Fayetteville Observer over more than 25-years. Her friend Faye Garza was also an inserter. Up until last week they were part of an assembly line which inserts coupons and advertisements into newspapers. This job was manually done when Garza first started. This task was later automated by the newspaper.
Faye Garza, Everybody keeps asking “When are we going to retire?” “When are you retiring?” The Lord will take me or I’ll shut the place down.
Mae McEachern: I’ll never forget what Mr. Broadwell said. (Charles Broadwell was the newspaper’s Publisher from 2000 through 2016. The meeting was successful. … He said, “We’re all in it together.” And seemed like any time a situation would come up right there on the floor, or something like that, I’d say, “Well, we’re all in it together. It’s up to us all to help where we can. Sure did. I remember it from him.
Garza: I’m going to miss the job. … I was here 31 years. I had to have done something worthwhile. It was hard work running four or more hoppers simultaneously.
McEachern: There were some great people around. We sure did. That’s what got us in here so long. Good people are what I love. Sure do.
•••
Tony Chavonne, former general manager
As the head of the group that chose the new press, I also led it. Ronnie Criminger, Bill Owen and I went to press factories in England, Switzerland, and Germany, before we made the final choice on the KBA German press. This was the first ever digital press in the county. They had been previously mechanical presses. This press also had 48 pages of full colour and was the largest in America at the time.
It was quite a challenge for the staff in the press room to make this technological leap. The staff had to learn how to operate a letterpress printer and offset printing, as well as the basics of operating a machine with knobs and gears from their computer. While they were completing the training and installing the new press, the newspaper was still being published on the old press.
It was a yeoman’s job by each and every one of the dedicated press room staff. We took all the staff on the cruise as a token of appreciation after the completion of the press conversion.
•••
Bob Wilson was the former managing editor of The Observer, which he started in 1958.
Archie Fields, my long-time friend and coworker at The Observer was hired a year prior to me joining from Rocky Mount Evening Telegram. It was Ed Seaman, Sports Editor, who hired me to be a sports reporter.
A couple of years or so later, I became the paper’s regional editor for several years.
As newsroom jobs changed, I later moved to The Observer’s editorial page for a tour of duty.
I’m pretty sure it was 1976 when I became the paper’s managing editor. Operations had been pretty standard until Fayetteville Publishing Co. established The Fayetteville Times to be its morning publication. Both papers were able to compete in the news market, but this did not affect their quality.
As managing editor for The Observer, I retired in 1989.
It was probably a few years later that the papers were combined into The Observer-Times. The Fayetteville Observer then returned to its original title in 2-4 years.
•••
Archie Fields, former pressroom worker
There for over 41 years. 40 of them were in the Press Room. The first Sunday editions of The Fayetteville Observer were printed there by the hardestworking and most skilled men and women. The Observer was never without a paper. The Times and Observer-Times were also printed daily. You have never missed a day of the daily newspaper. Even though we (were late) on some days, we always received it.
•••
Ark Matthews is an ex-pressroom worker
Six years of my experience in the media room earned me my Journeyman Certificate. This was thanks to Ervin White’s leadership, Kenny Elliott and Archie Fields. Jerry Flowers, Jerry Flowers, and the tireless work of all those involved with the operation. It was a great honor to have worked in the pressroom. These are great people!!!
•••
Randy Foster, former news editor
I didn’t work in the press room, but I was the news editor in the newsroom and part of my job was to see the first copies off the press to make sure the lead headline was still there. While it was after midnight, my last task of the day, and I was eager to get home at night, everyone in platemaking and the press room worked tirelessly.
•••
Gene Swinson, Ex-Pressroom Worker
It was May 12, 1969 when I began working for them. My last day of work there was April 1, 2014. That’s just short of 45 years. It was a great place to work and I consider it a blessing that I got to be a part.
•••
Liliana Parker is a former Acento Latino marketing and sales manager
The paper bought Acento Latino. I was excited that it would be published in their presses. It was so amazing that it became a part of all the speeches I gave in schools to support Acento Latino. Many ESL and Spanish teachers at the base were inspired to take their students to tour our Press. These tours were conducted in Spanish by me. First, for the soldiers who would like to practice Spanish with a different person than their teachers, and second for the children who didn’t speak English. This would be a great way to inspire at least one person to pursue a career as a journalist.
•••
Melissa (Engle) Willett is a journalist with the Observer since 2004 to 2007.
After I graduated college, the Fayetteville Observer offered me a position in a place I didn’t know. It was my first time truly being away from my family — literally a nine-hour drive if I wanted to see them. To help me find an apartment and to get a tour from Steve Coffman, the then-editor of The Fayetteville Daily News, my stepmom drove with me. Bragg Boulevard was our entry point, as is the case with most people who visit Fayetteville. Needless to say, she wasn’t impressed nor confident she wanted to leave her daughter to cover crime in the city where the main thoroughfare had strip clubs and massage parlors.
We found an apartment near journalists in Haymount and we began to warm up. It was her after-hours newspaper tours that convinced me she was at the right place for the right reasons.
Steve showed us around the huge newsroom and the research library. The main entry is filled with historic memorabilia. He then led us into the press room, where we can see the actual paper being made. The presses were rolling, the aroma of newsprint filled the air and that massive machine ensured our communities would be informed of their government’s business, Fort Bragg’s comings and goings, school happenings, arrests and court cases, obits and birth announcements, and so much more. It was the presses in motion that changed her mind — she later told me she knew I was part of something bigger than myself, something more important and she knew I would be ok. I’d find that when I’d get homesick, I’d pop into the press room to inhale the smell of newsprint and remember her words.
After my first front-page story was published, I received a framed set of the printing plates from that day’s edition. That frame was my personal decoration in each of the offices I worked from when I returned to the Midwest in 2007. This was a way to remind me that I was once part of something greater than myself. Fayetteville’s Observer and others will hold a special place for me.
News director Beth Hutson can be reached at [email protected].