Crossword Genius

A lot of old newspapers (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ofttimes

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'old newspapers' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'a lot of' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'lot' could be 'm' and 'm' is located in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for ofttimes that I've seen is " Frequently, at short intervals (arch/poetic)".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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