Newspapers don’t particularly excite, entice or delight me, but since I’ve been reading the Asheville Citizen Times since I was a child, I decided I should attempt a review of the paper that has been an essential ingredient to the daily routine of citizens here in the mountains of Western North Carolina since it’s first publication.

The Asheville Citizen Times is a Gannett owned newspaper, printed and delivered in and around the Asheville, North Carolina area. Along with the expected national news found in the headlines, readers of the Asheville Citizen Times are likely to discover a variety of local and regional stories, essays, opinions, profiles, attractions and advertising. Although this newspaper isn’t the only paper available to subscribers in the Western North Carolina region, this is assuredly the most popular newspaper found in this area.

The leading stories typically appearing on the front page of this daily include topics on a potpourri of local and national events. Some of the recent past’s headlines have included “Plane crash kills 3"; “Drought worsens in WNC” “Housing limits in zoning draw fire” “Banner Elk officer shoots, wounds two suspects” “Eight more US troops die in Iraq” “Immigrant bill deal emerges” “Grant allows agency to provide housing” “Bill on medical malpractice arms to curb damages”.

Along with the headline news, the front page also provides a sidebar listing entitled “In Today’s Paper” which reader’s can use as a guideline or contents for easy location of specific headlines and stories. Located just beneath the contents is a copyright notification with the volume, number, pages and bar code. Interested readers can also use the phone numbers listed at the very bottom of the front page to call circulation for account information or to impart information which might be of interest to the newspaper.

A typical daily paper (Monday - Saturday) will include a listing of the inside headings, in the Index located at the bottom of the front page sidebar: Business, classified, crossword, living, lotteries, mountains, movies, nation/world, new arrivals, obituaries, opinion and sports. These titles are listed with a section and number for easy retrieval of information. A daily paper usually averages somewhere between 50-75 pages.

The Sunday paper’s index includes Arts, business, classified, crossword, forum, living, lotteries, mountains, nation/world, obituaries, real estate, sports, your news. A Sunday issue is usually anywhere from 125-200 pages and contains a large advertising section with restaurant and grocery coupons. Special events and news will sometimes cause the Sunday paper to be larger than it would normally be. These special inserts would include such items as larger store advertisements, listings of tourist attractions and newsworthy events, comics, interesting North Carolina related folklore, legend, crafts or arts, reviews, movie or television listings and data, and the list goes on.

Just on the right side of the newspaper title, Asheville Citizen Times, is a narrow column with local weather information, High, Low and forecast. On the left side of the title is a day and date. Above the paper’s title there will be a couple of headline titles with a page number for locating the stories inside the paper. These could include movie or book reviews, gardening or household tips, sports news or racing information, anything included within the current paper’s pages might be given placement above the title on the front page of the paper.


The online version of the Asheville Citizen Times is located at http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage. Online, the Citizen Times provides readers with a majority of the printed copy along with plenty of extras like a RSS feed, comment sections for particular stories and articles, blogs, podcasts and much more. I enjoy visiting the online newspaper simply because the information is so easily accessible due to links. I like clicking instead of turning pages that narrowly escape my dog's paws as he works his way past the paper clutter toward his place on my lap.

The major reason I can see for reading the Asheville Citizen Times in comparison to other newspapers would undoubtedly be the value of the regional information provided. If you live in or around Western North Carolina, or should you be planning a visit to the area, this is definitely a newspaper that you will find impressive in both it’s content and writing. Anyone who would like to learn more about the Western North Carolina mountains, the culture, values and community resources, will find a great resource with this paper. Along with the obvious reason for reading the Asheville Citizen Times, subscription rates are less expensive than many daily papers and I’ve noticed that the rates haven’t increased in several years.

If you want to know more about Asheville or the surrounding locations, sample a issue of the Asheville Citizen Times and let me know what you think.

Recommended: Yes

Describe the newspaper's political views: No political views are evident