Arkansas Times

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Arkansas Times

Type	weekly alternative newspaper (Thursday)
Format	tabloid

Owner	Arkansas Times Limited Partnership
Publisher	Alan Leveritt
Editor	Max Brantley, executive editor
Founded
Headquarters	Little Rock, Arkansas

Website: www.arktimes.com

Arkansas Times, a weekly alternative newspaper based in Little Rock, Arkansas, is a publication that has circulated for more than a quarter-century, originally as a magazine. Its current format stems from reaction to the Arkansas Democrat buyout of the Arkansas Gazette in 1991, which had resulted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Arkansas Times ' current executive editor, Max Brantley, is among those former Gazette staffers who lost their jobs as a result of the merger. The Gazette's editorial cartoonist, George Fisher, became the Times cartoonist until his death.

Billed as Arkansas' weekly newspaper of politics and culture (similarly styled as other regional publications like The Memphis Flyer), Arkansas Times is noted for its opinion columnists and feature articles that take a decidedly liberal stance in comparison to the larger, daily Democrat-Gazette. As of this writing (mid-2006), the Times typically advocates such causes as gay marriage, preservation or expansion of legal abortion, and elimination or tighter regulation of gifts to elected officials.

Over the years since its founding, the publication's parent company — Arkansas Times Limited Partnership — has gone on to produce a number of special inserts and associated publications. Among these are the weekly Arkansas Times AutoBuyer and monthly REALLiving which circulate separately, plus the seasonal Fashion City insert in the company's flagship publication. Annually, the first issue of the new year is the Native's Guide to Pulaski County — a comprehensive guide to communities and services in Little Rock and throughout Arkansas' most populous county.

[edit] Trivia

• The icon used at the close of most articles and columns throughout the publication is the stylized face of a catfish. A larger version appears with a top hat and monocle at the top of the "Observer" column, typically found on Page 5 each week. The catfish is also seen in the newspaper's sign outside its building at Markham and Scott Streets in downtown Little Rock.