Cherokee Scout

The Cherokee Scout is a weekly newspaper in Murphy, North Carolina, and Cherokee County. It is one of the largest newspapers in far-west North Carolina.

The print edition is published on Wednesdays and had a paid circulation of 5,748 in 2023. The paper is published by Community Newspapers, Inc. (CNI), Athens, Georgia.

The Scout publishes a number of special sections throughout the year. It has published "Readers Choice Awards" since at least 2015. The newspaper also prints an annual football guide named "Pigskin Preview," an annual basketball guide, "Mountain Hoops," and other guidebooks on schools, health, and veterans.

History
The Cherokee Scout was preceded by multiple Murphy newspapers: the Cherokee Herald (1874-1876), the Murphy Bulletin (1885-1889), and The Murphy Advance (1889). The Cherokee Scout began weekly publication in July 1889 using a letter press. A 1910 map shows the Scout 's office on Peachtree Street near the Cherokee County Courthouse. In January 1946, the Scout offices and printing plant relocated to a newly constructed flag stone building on Hickory Street. Before then the offices and printing plant were separated by two blocks. An offset printing plant was installed in March 1961 on Hickory Street to replace the letter press. It was the first offset press in western North Carolina.

The Scout opened a 5,000-square-foot office it built on Church Street on January 16, 1964. Four years later in March 1968 the paper installed a new Goss offset press to print the Scout and five other western North Carolina newspapers: The Andrews Journal, Clay County Progress, The Franklin Press, Highlands Highlander, Smoky Mountain Times, and Graham Star. The first color photographs appeared in the Scout by November 1973. The newspaper built and moved into its current downtown office in 2008.

The Cherokee Scout website, CherokeeScout.com, launched by 2005. The Scout faced competition from the weekly Cherokee Sentinel newspaper until the Sentinel closed in January 2012 when its publisher fell ill. Since merging with The Andrews Journal on January 1, 2019, the Scout has been the only newspaper serving Cherokee County. Randy Foster became the current editor in Feb. 2023.

Former slogans include “If it isn’t in the Scout it’s because we didn’t know it” (c. 1920s), “The People’s Paper” (c. 1934), “Our Aim: A Better Murphy, A Finer County” (c. 1939), “Dedicated to promoting Cherokee County” (c. 1956), and “Cherokee County’s Best Buy” (c. 1966).

Awards
The newspaper has won numerous awards from the North Carolina Press Association including news photography in 2016 as well as sports and religion reporting in 2016. The paper won second place in the "Best Niche Publication" category that year as well. In 2019, photographer Ben Katz won Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year in the Community Newspaper Division.

Publishers

 * 1) F.E. Case (1889-1890)
 * 2) Dr. J.W. Patton & J.S. Meroney (1891-1894)
 * 3) J.S. Meroney & Towns (1895-1914)
 * 4) Tate Powell (1915-1922)
 * 5) Bryan W. Sipe (1923-1925)
 * 6) C.W. Bailey (1925-1933)
 * 7) L.A. Lee (1934-1939)
 * 8) Victor C. Olmsted (1940-1942)
 * 9) Addie Mae Cooke (1943-1952)
 * 10) William V. and Emily P. Costello (1953-1955)
 * 11) George N. Bunch (1956-1957)
 * 12) Roy A. Cook (1958)
 * 13) Jerue Babb (1959-1962)
 * 14) Jack T. Owens (c. 1963- c. 1974)
 * 15) Weaver Carringer (c. 1985- c. 1986)
 * 16) David Brown (2003-present)

Notable contributors

 * 1) Tom DeTitta, former reporter who penned Georgia's official state drama, The Reach of Song