Tombstone's "Good News" paper was started in January of 2003 with the goal of providing good news, clean fun and a little history of Tombstone Arizona and the entire southwest to this historic western town's visitors at no cost to them. Owner and publisher, Keith Davis stated, "little did we know that the local residents would love our "Good News" paper as much as our visitors." And with good reason. Many of the historic articles appearing in Tombstone Times are written by western authors like, Tim Fattig, Gary Ledoux, Bronco Bill, Ray Madzia and Jane Eppinga, just to name a few. There is also the popular "Day trip from Tombstone" series that features fun and educational things to do within an hour drive from Tombstone. Tombstone Times has even gone so far as to create their very own comic strip, "Smith and Watson", which offers a slightly twisted look at the old west.

Keith said, "We started this paper for one reason. The average family's trip to Tombstone includes a lot of fun things like historic attractions, souvenir shopping and eating in the local restaurants, all of which require money to be spent. We wanted to provide a FREE souvenir of Tombstone to our tourists that they could take home with them and share with their family and friends. Tombstone's only industry is tourism. It's our bread and butter. And I feel it's best to show our "bread & butter" the historic and fun side of the town too tough to die and entice other folks to visit us".

Janice Hendricks, who used to run the Tombstone Visitor Center, is co-owner and author of many articles featured in the paper. She told us, "We started this paper with $50.00. It was originally only 4 pages long with 2 paid advertisers and has grown to 12 pages with over 20 ads from local businesses." Even their circulation has increased dramatically. There were 700 copies of the first issue printed which seemed to be fine, however after the first month it became clear that more copies were needed. Many of the businesses carrying the paper weren't able to keep them on their shelves. The circulation increased to 1000 copies per month, then 2000, then 2500 and beginning in January they estimate that they will be printing 4000 copies. That's close to, if not the largest in town distribution of any other local paper.

Tombstone Times is available at over 25 local businesses, restaurants and motels. You can even pick up a copy at City Hall. It is also distributed throughout Cochise County including the towns of Benson, Palominas, Bisbee, St. David, Pomerene, Sierra Vista, Willcox and even Steins, New Mexico. If that's not enough, it is available by subscription for folks who don't live in the area but want to keep up with the historic and informative articles. Currently there are issues going out to 15 states, Canada and overseas. They've even set up a subscriptions page on their website www.tombstonetimes.com so interested people can subscribe or order a sample issue with their credit card.

Asked about the future of Tombstone Times Keith said, "We are going strong and anticipate even more growth in the next year. Our plans are to keep this publication FREE for Tombstone's tourists and to provide subscriptions for anyone interested in our historic town, the town "Too Tough to Die."
For more information, you may contact Keith or Janice at (520) 457-3884, or email them at info@tombstonetimes.com