The ''National Observer'' was a weekly American general-interest national

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...

published by

Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' Barron's'', ''MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'', ''Financial News'' and ''Private E ...

from 1962 until July 11, 1977.

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...

wrote several articles for the ''National Observer'' as the correspondent for

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

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 Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

, 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).

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