The News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of the U.S. State of North Carolina. The N&O, as it is popularly called, is based in Raleigh and also covers Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill. The paper also has substantial readership in most of the state east of Winston-Salem. It is the state's second-largest newspaper, after The Charlotte Observer. The paper has won three Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 1996 for a computer-assisted investigation of the North Carolina hog industry.

The News & Observer Publishing Co. also publishes several non-daily local newspapers,including The Cary News, The Chapel Hill News, the Southwest Wake News, and The Herald in Johnston County.

The newspaper became an online service provider and offered one of the first World Wide Web news sites with Nando.net in 1994. In 1995, the paper was bought by McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, California.

The publisher is Orage Quarles, who was named the nation's outstanding publisher by Editor and Publisher magazine in 2002. In 2007, John Drescher was named executive editor, succeeding Melanie Sill. The paper has a daily circulation of approximately 176,000, and a Sunday circulation of approximately 211,000.

Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken (born November 30, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released in October 2003. He released four more albums on the RCA label: Merry Christmas with Love (2004), A Thousand Different Ways (2006), and the Christmas EP, All is Well (2006). His fourth studio album (the first album of original material since 2003's Measure of a Man), On My Way Here was released on May 6, 2008.

After the release of On My Way Here, Aiken left RCA and later signed with Decca Records. His first album with Decca, Tried and True, was released June 1, 2010 and his second Steadfast, was released March 26, 2012.

In the years following his American Idol appearance, Aiken has launched ten tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, A Clay Aiken Christmas and his televised live concert special in 2010 on PBS Tried & True Live!. He has been a frequent talk show guest, particularly on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He appeared as a guest star on Scrubs, Drop Dead Diva, 30 Rock and participated in comedy skits on numerous other shows.