The Fayetteville Observer

The Fayetteville Observer is a daily newspaper published in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It was locally owned by the McMurray family from 1923 to 2016, when it was acquired by GateHouse Media.

The paper is the oldest continuously published newspaper in North Carolina. It was founded in 1816 as the Carolina Observer, but was destroyed by William T. Sherman's invading army in 1865. It was refounded as The Fayetteville Observer in 1883. Originally an afternoon paper, it began publishing a morning paper, The Fayetteville Times, in 1973. The two papers merged as a single morning paper, The Fayetteville Observer-Times, in 1990. It dropped "Times" from its masthead in 1999.