The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas (USA). At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper switched to a biweekly publishing scheduling. Eventually, the paper reverted to a weekly schedule, and began concentrating less on the arts. While it is now known for its investigative stories of the local government, it also covers local sports stories, restaurants, events, and concerts.

The former Mayor of Dallas, Laura Miller, previously worked as a reporter for the Dallas Observer.

Village Voice Media owns the paper, along with numerous other alternative weekly newspapers in the USA.

The Dallas Observer is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.

Dallas ( /ˈdæləs/) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Divided between Collin, Dallas, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties, the city had a population of 1,197,816 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The city is the largest economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (the DFW MSA) that according to the March 2010 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,371,773. The metroplex economy is the sixth largest in the United States, with a 2010 gross metropolitan product of $374 billion.

Dallas was founded in 1841 and was formally incorporated as a city in February 1856. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, transportation and logistics. The city is home to the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas and a major city in the American South, Dallas is the main core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.