The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate (APS), was a network of
countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
newspapers and magazines that operated from 1966 into the late 1970s. As it evolved, the Underground Press Syndicate created an Underground Press Service, and later its own magazine. For many years the Underground Press Syndicate was run by
Tom Forcade
Thomas King Forçade (September 11, 1945 – November 17, 1978), also known as Gary Goodson, was an American underground journalist and cannabis rights activist in the 1970s. For many years he ran the Underground Press Syndicate (later called the ...
, who later founded ''
High Times
''High Times'' is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the Legalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States, legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by ...
'' magazine.
UPS members agreed to allow all other members to freely reprint their contents, to exchange gratis subscriptions with each other, and to occasionally print a listing of all UPS newspapers with their addresses. Anyone who agreed to those terms was allowed to join the syndicate. As a result, countercultural news stories, criticism, and cartoons were widely disseminated, and a wealth of content was available to even the most modest start-up paper.
Shortly after the formation of the UPS, the number of
underground papers throughout North America expanded dramatically. A UPS roster published in November 1966 listed 14 underground papers — a 1971 roster listed 271 UPS-affiliated papers in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The underground press' combined readership eventually reached into the millions.
History
Formation
![Dreyer at ups meeting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Dreyer_at_ups_meeting.jpg)
The Underground Press Syndicate was initially formed by the publishers of five early underground papers: the ''
East Village Other
''The East Village Other'' (often abbreviated as ''EVO'') was an American underground newspaper in New York City, issued biweekly during the 1960s. It was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a New York newspaper so countercultural that it ma ...
'' (New York City), the ''
Los Angeles Free Press
The ''Los Angeles Free Press'', also called the "''Freep''", is often cited as the first, and certainly was the largest, of the underground newspapers of the 1960s. The ''Freep'' was founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, who served as its publisher unti ...
,'' the ''
Berkeley Barb
The ''Berkeley Barb'' was a weekly underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers, covering such subjects as the anti-war movem ...
'', ''
The Paper'' (
East Lansing, Michigan
East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County with a smaller portion extending north into Clinton County, Michigan, Clinton County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...
), and ''
Fifth Estate'' (
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, Michigan).
[Reed, John]
"The Underground Press and Its Extraordinary Moment in US History,"
''Hyperallergic
''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking ...
'' (July 26, 2016).
The first official UPS gathering was held at the home of the ''
San Francisco Oracle
''The Oracle of the City of San Francisco'', also known as the ''San Francisco Oracle,'' was an underground newspaper published in 12 issues from September 20, 1966, to February 1968 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of that city. Allen Cohen (p ...
''
's Michael Bowen in
Stinson Beach, California
Stinson Beach is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, on the west coast of the United States. Stinson Beach is located east-southeast of Bolinas, at an elevation of . The population of the Sti ...
, in March 1967, with some 30 people representing a half-dozen papers in attendance.
The meeting was chaotic and largely symbolic, and the concept amorphous. It was hoped that the syndicate would sell national advertising space that would run in all five papers, but this never happened. As
Thorne Dreyer
Thorne Webb Dreyer (born August 1, 1945) is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements. Dreyer now lives in Austin, Texas, whe ...
and Victoria Smith wrote for
Liberation News Service
Liberation News Service (LNS) was a New Left, anti-war underground press news agency that distributed news bulletins and photographs to hundreds of subscribing underground, alternative and radical newspapers from 1967 to 1981. Considered the "Asso ...
(LNS), the formation of UPS was designed "to create the illusion of a giant coordinated network of freaky papers, poised for the kill." But, they added, "this mythical value was to be extremely important: the shoes could be grown into," and the emergence of UPS helped to create a sense of national community and to make the papers feel less isolated in their efforts.
Walter Bowart
Walter Howard Bowart (May 14, 1939 – December 18, 2007)Fox, Marglit (Jan. 14, 2008)(obituary). ''New York Times''. was an American leader in the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture movement of the 1960s, founder and editor of the first ...
and
John Wilcock
John Wilcock (4 August 1927 – 13 September 2018) was a British journalist known for his work in the underground press, as well as his travel guide books.
The first news editor of the New York ''Village Voice'', Wilcock shook up staid publish ...
of the ''East Village Other'', with Michael Kindman of ''The Paper'' took the lead in inviting other papers to join. ''The
San Francisco Oracle
''The Oracle of the City of San Francisco'', also known as the ''San Francisco Oracle,'' was an underground newspaper published in 12 issues from September 20, 1966, to February 1968 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of that city. Allen Cohen (p ...
'', ''
The Rag
''The Rag'' was an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas from 1966–1977. The weekly paper covered political and cultural topics that the conventional press ignored, such as the growing antiwar movement, the sexual revolution, gay l ...
'', and the ''
Illustrated Paper
''Illustrated Paper'' was a monthly psychedelic underground press, underground newspaper published in Mendocino, California from June 1966 to April 1967. Initially issued under the title ''The Paper'', it became the ''Illustrated Paper'' with its ...
'' (a psychedelic paper published in
Mendocino, California
Mendocino (Spanish for "of Mendoza") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mendocino County, California, United States. Mendocino is located south of Fort Bragg at an elevation of . The population of the CDP was 932 ...
) joined soon afterward, and membership grew rapidly in 1967 as new papers were founded (such as the ''
Chicago Seed'')
[ Peck, Abe. ''Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985).] and immediately joined. First-hand coverage of the
1967 Detroit riot
The 1967 Detroit Riot, also known as the 12th Street Riot or Detroit Rebellion, was the bloodiest of the urban riots in the United States during the "Long, hot summer of 1967". Composed mainly of confrontations between Black residents and the De ...
s in ''
Fifth Estate'' was one example of material that was widely copied in other papers of the syndicate.
The first paper in the deep South to join was ''
The Inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
'' (
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
). ''Fluxus West'', a
Fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
offshoot mostly engaged in
mail art
Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Schoo ...
and self-publishing activities, founded by
Ken Friedman
Ken Friedman (born September 19, 1949 in New London, Connecticut) is a design researcher. He was a member of Fluxus, an international laboratory for experimental art, architecture, design, and music. Friedman joined Fluxus in 1966 as the youngest m ...
, was also one of the newest UPS members in 1967.
Expansion
By June 1967, a UPS conference in
Iowa City
Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...
hosted by ''
Middle Earth
Middle or The Middle may refer to:
* Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits.
Places
* Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man
* Middle Bay (disambiguation)
* Middle Brook (disambiguation)
* Middle Creek ( ...
'' drew 80 newspaper editors from the U.S. and Canada, including representatives of
Liberation News Service
Liberation News Service (LNS) was a New Left, anti-war underground press news agency that distributed news bulletins and photographs to hundreds of subscribing underground, alternative and radical newspapers from 1967 to 1981. Considered the "Asso ...
. LNS, founded by
Marshall Bloom and
Ray Mungo
Raymond Mungo (born 1946) is an American author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books. He writes about business, economics, and financial matters as well as cultural issues.
In the 1960s, he attended Boston University, where he served ...
that summer, would play an equally important and complementary role in the growth and evolution of the underground press in the United States.
An attempt that summer by Bob Rudnick to coordinate and centralize the UPS at the offices of the ''East Village Other'' in New York City failed.
Forcade assumes leadership
Soon after,
Tom Forcade
Thomas King Forçade (September 11, 1945 – November 17, 1978), also known as Gary Goodson, was an American underground journalist and cannabis rights activist in the 1970s. For many years he ran the Underground Press Syndicate (later called the ...
took leadership of the organization, opening an office on West 10th Street in New York City, at which UPS curated the underground press collection for regular
microfilming as well as publishing the UPS News Service.
Offices were relocated to
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
during the summer of 1972 to cover the
Democratic and
Republican Conventions, both of which were held in that city that summer.
Under Forcade's leadership, UPS would later also publish the ''Underground Press Revue''.
The UPS and the women's liberation movement
As the underground press movement evolved,
women's liberation
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...
, initially a non-issue in the male-dominated underground press, became an increasing focus. The UPS passed the following resolutions at its 1969 conference:
These resolutions were a harbinger of staff rebellions by women that split several papers, including ''
Rat'', where the feminist faction seized control of the paper for several issues. A few papers, already weakened by staff burnout, poor finances, and other factors, died in the wake of these schisms, while others lost revenue and circulation by barring sexual content and advertisements, which in any event were increasingly being spun off into tabloid sex papers like ''
Screw
A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to fa ...
''.
Underground comix
Almost from the outset, the Underground Press Syndicate supported and distributed
underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
strips. Cartoonists and strips syndicated by the organization included
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...
,
Jay Lynch
Jay Patrick Lynch (January 7, 1945 – March 5, 2017) was an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his ''Bijou Funnies'' and other titles. He is best known for his comic strip ''Nard n' Pat'' and the r ...
,
[Rosenkraz, Patrick. "FEATURES: Jay Lynch, 1945-2017," ''The Comics Journal'' (Mar. 6, 2017).] Ron Cobb
Ronald Ray Cobb (September 21, 1937 – September 21, 2020) was an American-Australian artist. In addition to his work as an editorial cartoonist, he contributed to major films including '' Dark Star'' (1974), '' Star Wars'' (1977), '' Alien'' (19 ...
,
Frank Stack
Frank Huntington Stack (born October 31, 1937 in Houston, Texas) is an American underground cartoonist and fine artist. Working under the name Foolbert Sturgeon to avoid persecution for his work while living in the Bible Belt, Stack published wh ...
,
["Special Collections and Rare Books: Frank Stack Collection,"]
University of Missouri Libraries. Accessed Dec. 29, 2016. and
The Mad Peck's ''Burn of the Week''.
Meanwhile, other cartoonists whose work appeared in UPS-member papers, such as the ''
East Village Other
''The East Village Other'' (often abbreviated as ''EVO'') was an American underground newspaper in New York City, issued biweekly during the 1960s. It was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a New York newspaper so countercultural that it ma ...
'' and the ''
Berkeley Barb
The ''Berkeley Barb'' was a weekly underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers, covering such subjects as the anti-war movem ...
'', saw their work widely distributed, eventually leading to success in the underground comix industry. Ironically, however, reprints became popular with publishers because underground artists originally had few
claims on their own work.
The open-ended permissions given by UPS were exploited by some underground comix publishers, bulking up or entirely filling their own magazines with work whose creators didn't receive any payment even when those publishers made a profit.
UPS becomes the Alternative Press Syndicate
The explosive growth of the underground press had begun to subside by 1970, and by 1973 the boom was clearly over.
After a 1973 meeting of member newspapers in
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...
, the name of the syndicate was changed to the Alternative Press Syndicate (APS).
APS members sorely needed revenues, and in 1973, "Richard Lasky, ex-''
Rolling Stone Magazine
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...
'' Advertising Director of the successful San Francisco-based weekly, and Sheldon (Shelly) Schorr of ''Concert Magazine'', published in several cities," created a national advertising media selling company, APSmedia.
APSmedia placed advertising primarily from record and stereo companies with success, placing more than 350 pages of advertising for many of the publications in the bigger markets in the first year. As cities were in the major markets, it mostly sold ads into publications without the advertisers knowing anything more than the names of the client papers. In 1976, APSmedia dissolved.
Dissolution
By 1974 most underground newspapers in the U.S. had ceased publication.
APS limped along but had gone defunct by 1978; succeeded almost immediately by the
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies
The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. AA ...
, founded in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
.
Although many of the members of the Underground Press Syndicate/Alternative Press Syndicate were founded when the legendary urban underground papers were already dead or dying, their influence resonated through the 1970s and beyond, in scores of eclectic papers founded in small towns and suburbs. For example, Long Island's ''
Moniebogue Press'' and ''Suffolk StreetPapers'' offer general audiences alternative perspectives on local news and culture, while ''
Akwesasne Notes'' specializes in
Native American politics, including issues of peace and ecology.
See also
*
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...
*
List of underground newspapers of the 1960s counterculture
This is a partial list of the local underground newspapers launched during the Sixties era of the hippie/psychedelic/youth/counterculture/New Left/antiwar movements, approximately 1965–1972. This list includes periodically appearing papers of ge ...
*
Ray Mungo
Raymond Mungo (born 1946) is an American author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books. He writes about business, economics, and financial matters as well as cultural issues.
In the 1960s, he attended Boston University, where he served ...
*
Rip Off Press Syndicate
Rip Off Press Corporation, Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and Distribution (business), distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' and ''Rip Off Comix'', as well as ...
*
Thorne Dreyer
Thorne Webb Dreyer (born August 1, 1945) is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements. Dreyer now lives in Austin, Texas, whe ...
*
Underground press
The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group.
In specific rec ...
Notes
Further reading
* Wachsberger, Ken, ed
''Voices from the Underground (Vol. 2): A Directory of Resources and Sources on the Vietnam Era Underground Press''(Mica Press, 1993) — has article about the Underground Press Syndicate and other period alternative news services
References
External links
— in a letter dated October 5, 1966, Thorne Dreyer announces the birth of ''The Rag'' to members of the Underground Press Syndicate.
{{Authority control
1966 establishments in the United States
Counterculture of the 1960s
History of Marin County, California
News agencies based in the United States
Newspaper associations
Print syndication