By virtue of one of its predecessors, the Arkansas Gazette (founded in 1819), it claims to be the oldest continuously published newspaper west of the Mississippi River.

William E. Woodruff arrived at the territorial capital at Arkansas Post in late 1819 on a dugout canoe with a second-hand wooden press.

[4] The Gazette struggled through the early American Civil War, facing financial problems and shortages of supplies.

The Gazette had initially been pro-United States but altered its position after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln called for a 75,000-man militia, much like Arkansas.

Smithee bought the newspaper, changed its name to the Arkansas Democrat, and went after lucrative state printing contracts held by the Gazette.

Despite its honors, the circulation of the Gazette dropped during the crisis due to boycotts, which ended when Ashmore left the paper.

In 2005, the Democrat-Gazette editorial cartoonist John Deering and his wife Cathy created a bronze sculpture of the Nine, entitled Testament, on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.

[8] Hussman embarked on a campaign of significant cost reductions and concentrated subscription efforts on the Little Rock urban market.

The Democrat expanded its news operation, offered free classified advertisements, and switched from afternoon to morning publication.

The fiery and irascible Starr temperament and intent in the upcoming circulation war was humorously illustrated by a cover story in the monthly magazine Arkansas Times showing Starr squatting atop a Gazette newspaper box with a dagger between his teeth to show his seriousness.

The Heiskell family sold the Arkansas Gazette to Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper chain, on December 1, 1986.

Many of the "Old Lady's" employees left for other markets while some who remained aided in converting the Arkansas Times from a magazine format to a tabloid newspaper to provide a more liberal weekly alternative to the dominant conservative paper.

Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Greenberg was appointed the Democrat-Gazette editorial page editor on April 29, 1992.

The newspaper credits the strategy with helping it stem declines in circulation, where it has fared much better than the industry at large since that time.

Most other newspapers that implemented paywalls later had been operating popular free-access websites for years, leading to reader backlash.

[9] The Democrat-Gazette ended print delivery of its Monday-Saturday papers statewide throughout 2018 and 2019 and transitioned to a digital replica edition.

All subscribers were provided a new iPad to access the replica edition and one-on-one instruction, training, and technical assistance.