National Observer (United States)

{{short description|Weekly American national newspaper}}

{{Other uses|National Observer (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox newspaper

| name = National Observer

| logo = National_Observer_Logo-1974-1977.gif

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| owners = Dow Jones & Company

| founder = Bernard Kilgore{{cite news|last=Kandel|first=Myron|title=Bookshelf; Making the News New; A portrait of the man who did so much to shape the modern Wall Street Journal.|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123655953665866513|accessdate=22 May 2012|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=9 Mar 2009}}

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| foundation = {{Start date|1962|02|04}}

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| ceased publication = {{end date|1977|07|11}}

| headquarters = Washington, D.C.

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| sister newspapers = Wall Street Journal

| ISSN = 0027-9803

| oclc = 1759309

| website =

}}

The National Observer was a weekly American general-interest national newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company from 1962 until July 11, 1977.{{cite news|title=Follow the Numbers: IN 125 YEARS, Dow Jones has grown into the definitive source of business journalism. |url=https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-DJTimeline0706.html|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|accessdate=22 May 2012}}{{cite journal|last=Pardue|first=Mary Jane|title=The Wall Street Journal and the Invention of Modern Journalism|journal=Newspaper Research Journal|date=1 July 2009|volume=30|issue=3|pages=122–124|doi=10.1177/073953290903000310 |s2cid=220080244 }} Hunter S. Thompson wrote several articles for the National Observer as the correspondent for Latin America early in his career.

The newspaper was the inspiration of Barney Kilgore, then the president of Dow Jones. (Kilgore is credited as the "genius" who transformed the Wall Street Journal from a provincial financial daily with a circulation of 32,000, mostly on Wall Street, into the national giant it became.)

It was Kilgore's idea that the nation needed a weekly national newspaper that would synthesize all the week's events and current trends into an attractive, convenient package. In effect, the National Observer would offer the kind of quality non-financial journalism that the Wall Street Journal once featured in its front-page "leaders" (the articles that occupy the left- and right-hand columns).{{cite news|last=Morton|first=John|title=Great While It Lasted |url=http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=2721|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606031402/https://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=2721|archive-date=June 6, 2011|newspaper=American Journalism Review|date=December 2002|access-date=September 7, 2021}}