Observer Newspapers shuts down

Herndon-based Observer Newspapers has shut its doors for good.

Publisher Christopher Moore of Reston said the newspaper is no longer in business.

"We are not planning an issue for this week," Moore said Monday. "The paper has lived its life span."

Moore said that although the paper was popular, the economy and plight of newspaper advertising did the paper in.

"The revenues just weren't here," Moore said. "As a business, it just wasn't something we could continue."

The company was founded in 1976, and Moore said that at its peak, it published three editions -- Herndon, Reston and Loudoun County -- that approached an overall circulation of 80,000.

Later, the Loudoun edition was discontinued and the Herndon and Reston editions were combined. The newspaper had recently revamped its website and had interactive Facebook and Twitter pages.

Moore, who has accepted a job with an AOL news service, said he thanked the Town of Herndon for its "business and the opportunities over the years." Many people are sure to miss the Herndon-based tabloid that called itself "The Newspaper Everybody Reads."

"It is the end of an era," former Herndon Mayor Carol Bruce said.

"We tried really hard to take a newspaper company and become a media company," Moore said. "But in the end, the money just wasn't there."