The late Richard Rodgers’ and Oscar Hammerstein’s lyrics from “Getting to Know You” may have been the appropriate theme for this Thursday evening with Matt Hennie, our new editor-in-chief at CityView.
“Getting to know you,” Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote in 1951. “Getting to know all about you.”
It’s why CityView invited subscribers, readers, and community residents to the “Meet the Editor” gathering, which drew a small but curious group to the downtown ArtsXL on Burgess Street, where you could learn about how our digital newsroom and monthly CityView Magazine in print go about covering community news.
“I am thankful for CityView to give me the opportunity to be back in the thick of local news,” said Hennie, 54, who has a long journalism history across newsrooms in South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Arizona, and Texas. “Local news is something I’m very passionate about. I’m a resident of this city now, and we try to meet our readers where they are.”
Hennie has wasted little time since January 5 getting to know Fayetteville. He’s gone on-air with WFNC 640 A.M. radio host Gilbert Baez. You found him downtown on February 11 for the 2026 Fayetteville Dogwood Festival media night, and he took in the Greater Fayetteville Chamber awards gala on February 26 at the Cape Fear Valley Health Center for Medical Education and Neuroscience Institute.
At 6 foot, 8 inches, he’s hard to miss in the crowd.
Along with Hennie, those in attendance Thursday heard from Kyle Villemain, the 33-year-old founder and publisher of The Assembly (circa 2021), the digital publication out of Durham with a focus on deep-dive journalism across the state with seasoned reporters and editors. It has expanded to include The Thread in Greensboro, INDY Week in the Triangle, The Line in Cary and Western Wake County, Border Belt Independent in southeastern North Carolina, and CityView.
“We’re excited for Matt Hennie to be leading this team,” Villemain said. “About 5 1/2 years ago, I founded The Assembly. I got to meet great people around the state. Our belief is that community news is important. Today, we are pleased to be supporting CityView and supporting our team.”
Coming Up on Five Years
Our CityView digital products date to almost five years ago, when Tony Chavonne “noodled” the idea of what has evolved into the CityView website. He enjoyed publishing the monthly CityView Magazine, but as the former general manager of The Fayetteville Observer, his frustrations grew after the Gatehouse Media purchase of the family-owned publication and what was becoming a “news desert” in this community.
“After publishing CityView Magazine for almost two years, our team’s frustrations had only grown as we saw the ‘ghost’ newspaper town that Fayetteville was becoming,” Chavonne wrote in a CityView Magazine editorial on June 21, 2024. “As secret discussions about selling our Fayetteville PWC utility and allegations of abuse of power by elected officials were becoming known, we saw limited coverage in the local newspaper.”
A lead newspaper headline about “Bojangles adds fried chicken sandwich,” and the former four-term Fayetteville mayor had had enough.
“We were reminded each day that our daily newspaper was making the decision to use its limited news resources to cover the local food scene, and to ignore the growing issues in our community, which increasingly were negotiated in the dark,” Chavonne wrote. “It is times like this that challenge our beliefs about the importance of our citizens having access to objective local news, and more important, what each of us is prepared to do about it.”
Chavonne was prepared to be the first in this community to do something, and he did.
“Long-time journalist Bill Kirby and I had studied for months how we might leverage CityView, our successful lifestyle magazine, and use those resources to add local reporters and begin to cover local government with a free daily newsletter,” Chavonne wrote. “From those planning sessions and discussions with many previous Observer reporters, all who shared our concerns, CityView Today began publication in early 2022.”
Since that time, we have been led along our way by some talented journalists such as Lorry Williams, our late managing editor; magazine editor Kim Hasty; former executive editor Bill Horner III; former editor-in-chief Maydha Devarajan; investigative reporter Greg Barnes, Bobby Parker, Scott Parker, Paul Woolverton, Michael Futch, Lexi Solomon, Morgan Casey, Valeria Cloës, Evey Weisblat, Earl Vaughan, Trey Nemec, Jami McLaughlin, Jason Canady, Nancy McCleary, Janet Gibson-Uffinger, photojournalist Cindy Burnham, photographer Tony Wooten, and the late Gary Mangum.
Woolverton remains on the CityView staff covering county government, the Public Works Commission, and politics, along with new reporters in the no-nonsense city government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader and Dasia Williams, who doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to public education. Cloës is editor of CityView Magazine.
‘Wonderful Stories To Be Told’
“We need to add to our newsroom staff,” said Sharon Moyer, who is regional director of philanthropy and partnerships for The Assembly and is a longtime Fayetteville resident. “There are wonderful stories in this community to be told.”
Members of the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville board of directors are Alisa Debnam, president; Tim White, former Fayetteville Observer editorial page editor, vice president; Chavonne, secretary-treasurer; Darsweil Rogers, Rene Corders, Rafael Boyd, Catherine Pritchard, Martha Lerario, and Kellie Artis. The nonprofit foundation financially supports CityView.
Reporting the local news doesn’t come cheap, but Villemain reminded us Thursday that CityView subscribers and readers will find no pay walls blocking you from reading our stories. As CityView grows revenue, the news coverage will expand, which could include “more military stories, and we’d like more business reporting,” he said.
And, Hennie said, more stories on the arts, and you can be sure that will have Mary Kate Burke and Ella Wrenn at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre and Bob Pinson and Kennon Jackson Jr. cheering at the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County.
“History has shown us that our community is a better place when our residents are informed and engaged with the important issues of their lives,” Tony Chavonne said in 2024, when he announced The Assembly would take ownership of what CityView digital and CityView Magazine will be. “CityView and CityView TODAY’s commitment to that belief has never been stronger. With your continued interest and support we will help watch over your elected officials, hold them accountable to you and report on the critical issues of our time, and share the faces and stories of our beloved community.”
Epilogue
The late Lorry Williams was our first CityView digital editor. The former executive editor of The Fayetteville Observer, Lorry was the most dedicated journalist this community ever came to know. Diagnosed with breast cancer, she typed with one finger until her death at age 59 on February 28, 2023.
Emily McCord, the senior regional editor for The Assembly, oversees its local newsrooms, including CityView. She wanted me to meet on January 7 with Matt Hennie. She wanted me to share my thoughts with Hennie about our CityView digital news history.
There was a caricature of Lorry Williams nearby. I took the caricature of Lorry Williams and held it for Hennie to see.
“Be like Lorry Williams,” I said, and I told him right.
We have stories to write, places to be, and deadlines to meet. Matt Hennie is the tall fellow with the balding head and the easy demeanor, and he’s the editor-in-chief. And Matt Hennie knows the news never sleeps. We’re getting to know him, and our hope is that you’ll get to know him, too, because Matt Hennie now calls Fayetteville home.
And one more thing.
All of us were delighted to see so many familiar faces Thursday evening and thank you for taking the time to be with us.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
We’re nearing our fourth year of CityView Today, and so many of you have been with us from day one in our efforts to bring the news of the city, county, community and Cape Fear region each day. We’re here with a purpose—to deliver the news that matters to you.