From the editor: Fayetteville Observer press closure marks the end of an era
When Monday’s edition of The Fayetteville Observer finishes rolling off the press Sunday evening, we’re losing part of our family.
Starting with our Tuesday edition, the Observer will be printed at our sister paper, 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 printing press will roll to a stop at The Fayetteville Observer
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.
I want to extend the most heartfelt thanks to each and every one of the folks in our press department. Thank you, also, to those who have worked here over the years. We appreciate all of you more than you know.
Former workers share thoughts
We asked current and former Observer employees to share the memories of our press and the people who ran it.
Here are some of their responses.
Mae McEachern of Raeford was an inserter for The Fayetteville Observer for more than 25 years, and her friend Faye Garza of Fayetteville was an inserter for more than 31. Until last week, they worked on an assembly line that inserted coupons and advertising flyers into the newspapers. When Garza started, this job was done by hand. Later, the newspaper installed machines to speed up this task.
Faye Garza: Everybody kept saying, "When are you going to retire? When are you going to retire?" I said, "When the Lord takes me, or this place shut down."
Mae McEachern: I’ll never forget what Mr. Broadwell said. (Charles Broadwell was the newspaper’s publisher from 2000 to 2016.) We had a meeting. … 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. We just have to lend a hand where a hand is needed." Sure did. He said it, and it stuck with me.
Garza: I’m going to miss the job. … I was here 31 years. I must have been doing something good. Even the hard work, running three and four hoppers at a time.
McEachern: We (had) some good people here. We sure did. That’s what got us in here so long. I like good people. Sure do.
•••
Tony Chavonne, former general manager
I led the team that selected the new press. Bill Owen, Ronnie Criminger and I visited press manufacturers in England, Switzerland and Germany before making the final decision on the KBA press from Germany. It was one of the first digital presses in the county, they had previously been mechanical presses. It also offered the ability to print 48 pages of full color on every page, and at the time, one of highest capacity for full color of any press in America.
The technological leap required of the press room staff was a huge challenge. They were asked to convert from letterpress printing to offset printing and from operating a press with gears and knobs to operating it from a computer monitor. And while the year-long training and installation of the new press was happening, they had to continue to publish the daily newspaper on the old press.
It was a yeoman’s job by each and every one of the dedicated press room staff. I recall that after the press conversion was completed, we sent the press room staff and their wives on a cruise in appreciation for their tremendous efforts.
•••
Bob Wilson, former managing editor who started at the Observer in 1958
Well, my friend and longtime co-worker Archie Fields got to The Observer a year before I came on board from the Rocky Mount Evening Telegram. This was the result of Sports Editor Ed Seaman hiring me as a sports writer.
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 were pretty routine until Fayetteville Publishing Co. created The Fayetteville Times as its morning publication. The news competition was keen but that helped the quality of both papers.
I retired as managing editor of The Observer in 1989.
I think it was a couple of years later when the two papers combined as The Observer-Times and then in 2-3 more years The Fayetteville Observer returned to its original name!
•••
Archie Fields, former pressroom worker
Worked there for 41 years. Forty of those in the Press Room. Started there in 1957, the week the first Sunday edition of The Fayetteville Observer was printed by the most talented and hardest-working men and women ever. Never missed a day printing The Observer, The Times, The Observer-Times and many other publications. Never missed a daily paper. We (were) late on a few days, but always got it out.
•••
Ark Matthews, former pressroom worker
I worked in the pressroom six years and, thanks to great leadership from Ervin White, Kenny Elliott, Archie Fields, Jerry Flowers and all the hardworking press operators during my time there, I earned my Journeyman certificate. Very proud to have been a part of the team in the pressroom. 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. Even though it was past midnight and the last thing I did each day and eager to go home, the folks in platemaking and in the press room were great people and worked hard.
•••
Gene Swinson, former pressroom worker
I started working there on May 12, 1969, and my last day was on April 1, 2014, just shy of 45 years. I met a lot of good people there and consider myself fortunate to have been a part of it all.
•••
Liliana Parker, former marketing and sales director for Acento Latino
When Acento Latino was purchased by the paper, I thought the fact (it would) be printed in their press was going to put the little Spanish-language newspaper on another level. I was so proud that I always talked about it in all my speeches in the schools I visited to promote Acento Latino. This motivated many ESL teachers and Spanish teachers from the base to bring their students, children and adults, to make a tour in our press. I was the one who conducted those tours in Spanish. 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. I thought this would touch the heart of at least one to become a journalist.
•••
Melissa (Engle) Willett, journalist at the Observer from 2004-2007.
After graduating college, I accepted a position at The Fayetteville Observer in a city where I knew no one. It was my first time truly being away from my family — literally a nine-hour drive if I wanted to see them. My stepmom drove down with me to apartment hunt and get a tour of the paper from a then-editor Steve Coffman. Like most who come to Fayetteville, our entrance was via Bragg Boulevard. 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.
Nonetheless, we found a safe apartment in Haymount, near other journalists, and she began warming up to the idea. But it was the after-hours newspaper tour that convinced her I was in the right place, for the right reasons.
Steve showed us the large newsroom and research library, the main entry rich with historical memorabilia and then took us to the press room where the paper comes to life. 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. In 2007, when I left for the Midwest, I adorned each office in which I worked with that frame. It served as a reminder that for a time, I was part of something special and something bigger than myself. For those reasons, among others, Fayetteville and The Observer will always hold a special place in my heart.
News director Beth Hutson can be reached at bhutson@fayobserver.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville Observer printing operations move to Gastonia
