Beginning in October 1941, The CAROLINIAN presented the public with an eight-page, seven-column newspaper. The CAROLINIAN is an outgrowth of the Carolina Tribune.

The Carolina Tribune had its inception under Claude Whitaker after World War I and was printed in the Orgen Printing Co.’s plant at 115 E. Hargett St. in Raleigh. The plant later moved to 118 E. Hargett St. under the management of C.A. Whitaker and L.M. Cheek.

Around 1932, H.I. Fontilllo-Nanton, who had worked with the Carolina Times, assumed the ownership and editor-publisher position of the Carolina Tribune. He published the Tribune until October 1940 at which time the name was changed from the Tribune to The CAROLINIAN.

P.R. Jervay, Sr., assumed the position of editor-publisher-owner of The CAROLINIAN in 1940. Jervay had come into the business with Nanton, who had a position with NYA in Raleigh. Nan-ton later took a position doing property survey work in Raleigh. From there, he pursued his doctorate at Iowa State UniversIty. This placed him in the education world, where he spent some 35 to 40 years between Texas, South Carolina, Raleigh and Hampton Institute. He is now retired.

Jervay came to Raleigh from Wilmington, where he aided his father in the publishing of the Cape Fear Journal. Going there from Hampton Institute where he had been an instructor in Linotyping, he remained there from 1936 until 1940, when he left for Raleigh.

Being a man of insight, Jervay realized that education is the cornerstone of success for the black community. And with that in mind, he has created several innovative ideas to help promote education through the pages of The CAROLINIAN. Every year, The CAROLINIAN publishes an education edition which allows different educational institutions to tell about themselves and explore various issues. The paper also regularly publishes a school page during the school year called "Window To Our Public School System."

Jervay began his tenure with the following equipment: Michle cylinder press, Model 14 Linotype machine, 9X 12X 18 job presses, Diamond paper cutter, Boston stitcher, Miller bench saw, type cabinet, miscellaneous type and print shop tools.

Knowing that a quality newspaper must have good machinery and efficient personnel, he set a goal of improving the mechanical equipment. The personnel then being only three printers, a salesman, a reporter, some part-time personnel and himself.

The CAROLINIAN’s predecessor, the Tribune, was an eight-page, seven-column newspaper with depressed circulation, scarce advertising and minimal goodwill. However, the struggle to keep going was accomplished by those who fostered the Tribune and they deserve due credit, and many were good newspaper personnel.

In 1945, The CAROLINIAN enlarged its facility in order to house an eight-page direct print web

press to complement other equipment such as an lntertype and Monotype. By this time there had been considerable growth in personnel a and necessary equipment

In order to develop what seemed expedient for ca pita l intake beyond CAROLINIAN revenue a block of papers were printed comprising art least seven per week covering Raleigh Wilmington, Fayetteville, Kinston, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Asheville and sometimes Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tenn. and Charleston and Columbia, S.C. All papers were makeover eight-page format regular eight columns.

After several years, the management decided eight papers were non-competitive on a statewide basis as they could not accommodate news and pictures of North Carolina which were being sent, in a large measure, out of state and marketed back to three major black weeklies.

In 1950, a group of home economics teachers bought the Arcade building from the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. Subsequently, Ms. Lucy Fuller James, in charge of affairs for the group, requested The CAROLINIAN to move. In June of 1953, The CAROLINIAN broke ground for its current business location on 518 E. Martin St. The present plant, containing 30,000 square feet, is of brick and cinderblock construction. A 24-page Hoe stereotype press was installed in the new location and a program of additional pages was inaugurated.

For 10 years, The CAROLINIAN operated with 16 or more pages from what was then an all-letterpress mechanical department, experiencing steady growth in its news content, advertising, circulation and general acceptance in Raleigh and the state.

For seven years, The CAROLINIAN fostered a food show and exposition beginning in the basement of First Baptist Church, thence to Spaulding Gymnasium and finally to Raleigh Memorial Auditorium m. The CAROLINIAN currently cosponsors tine Bring Out Your Best Awards, a salute to leaders of tine community.

The growth of The CAROLINIAN was not without hardship. During World Ward II, when tine need for armed forces personnel sapped the man-power of business and industry, in fact, every walk of Life, the emptied reservoir of printers and newspaper people left a questionable future.

The CAROLINIAN resorted to a training program in all phases of its operation following the period of the manpower shortage. While this program served a need, many of the trainers who became journeymen sought larger cities and plants that paid higher wages. Even after the training program m was disbanded, many of the employees of the newspaper have moved on to greener pastures, especially since the convictions to the black press are less by most of its employees lam modern times. Some of The CAROLINIAN’S former employees can be found in government jobs, school offices, metropolitan dailies and black newspapers.

The CAROLINIAN currently averages 10,000 weekly on its Thursday paper and 8,000 on its Monday edition, which it transformed from a shopper’s guide to a regular newspaper with news and pictures of local interest

The CAROLINIAN prints outside editions in the Rocky Mount/Wilson markets, and also in the Greenville market. Its Thursday edition averages 22 pages per week while some editions carry inserts or other special editions.