The Robesonian
U.S. local/mainstream, no strong partisan tilt
Background
The Robesonian was founded in 1870 by W.S. McDiamid, a Baptist preacher, making it one of the older continuously published community papers in North Carolina. For much of the 20th century it operated as a locally rooted daily serving Robeson County, a racially diverse area with significant Lumbee Native American, Black, and white populations. The paper passed through several regional media chains, including Heartland Publications and Civitas Media, before Champion Media acquired it in 2017 as part of a package of Carolinas newspaper properties. A defining moment in its history came on February 1, 1988, when two Tuscarora men, Eddie Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs, entered the newsroom armed and held roughly 20 staff members hostage for about 10 hours to demand a state investigation into corruption and drug trafficking in Robeson County — an event that drew national attention to deep racial and civic tensions in the region. The paper publishes Tuesday through Saturday and maintains a website with digital subscriptions. It reaches an estimated 60,000 readers daily across print and online platforms. As a community-focused paper in a county that has shifted from reliably Democratic to more competitive Republican territory in recent elections, its news coverage tends toward local accountability journalism rather than national ideological positioning.
Sources
- The Robesonian — Wikipedia
- The Robesonian takeover — Wikipedia
- Champion Media acquires Civitas assets in Carolinas — Sampson Independent
- Champion Media Acquires North Carolina and South Carolina Assets of Civitas Media
- About Us — Robesonian
- The Robesonian (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-Current — Library of Congress
- The Broadside Transcript: The takeover of the Robesonian — WUNC
Profile compiled 2026-07-30; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.