The Midwest Times newspaper was founded by Gay Chicago founder and publisher Ralph-Paul Gernhardt, to fill a need for a regional publication taht would truly represent the interests and activities of the gay community in the midwest. Gay Chicago had begun publishing in about 1976, and by the end of the 1970s his company, Ultra Ink Inc., had made attempts to establish several other local publications aside from Gay Chicago, including Gay Detroit, Gay Milwaukee, and Gay Ohio. The demands of several publications attempting to cover activities so geographically disbursed made those efforts difficult to maintain however, so all eventually were merged into a more regional representation of Gay Chicago covering all of the Midwest, as well as a brief foray into this newspaper format, the Midwest Times, beginning in January 1981.

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