UNDERGROUND PAPERS SURFACE, GROW IN NUMBERS, INFLUENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300230005-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2006
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: August 19, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

BALTIMORE SUN
Approved For Release 2006/0 118: CIA-RDP88-01314R00030023Q 0.6.3 c.1.13, k z few ~
9 AUG 1972 -i. fl
puprs n.u. ace.
tV . _I 11,
H114111 1", 1, 11,11 f hu'vace
be 's *
Fly T h.e Associated Press
with less emphasis, . on
bomb-making and more on
day-to-day community prob-
lems, underground newspapers
continue to grow" in numbers
and'influence,
Them;" ';are at least 400 of
.and movie reviews, activities,
meetings anti, demonstrations
that aren't covered as daily
fare in traditional .. papers,
"The tourists buy our paper to
find out what's really happen-
ing in ton," says Art -Kunkin
of the JA_ Free. Press,
these' '."..,Journals'. published Boston After Dark :began in
weekly compared to' but 200 '1966 to 'cover the arts . and
a few years sago. Underground entertainment scene: ' "As we
editors* say their total reader- watched the changing attitudes
ship=is'about 20 million, in the coul,try, we saw a re--
Ai-the-same time that under- sponsibilii.y to become more
grotuld' papers have -folded- in I involved in loci;,-political. 'is-,
major" cities 'like New York sues-the antiwar movement.,
and, San Francisco, they are segregation, consumer ? of
taking 'root in"such' unlikely'ifairs," says Stephen Mindich,'
turf as Apopka, Fla.; Aiiniston, the publisher.
Ala.,aiid' McConnelsburg, Pa:
"There isn't a;town with a
poiiulation of more than 50.000
Mr. Mindicli pi.?efei's that the
paper, with a circulation .of
about 50
0.00 since its merger
,
that doesn't have an under- with the Phoenix and now.
Tround??? paper, ,says Max called the Bosfon Phoenix,-not
i' :the Berkeley Barb. h, ,......
I think too many of those
Changing focus Papers have been. irresponsibly
and
establishmeWi. I'd rather'
Since their'major mushroom- this paper be called an alter-
ing in the late 60's, the papers;nr tive urban weekly."'
have been changing to reflect _ . Atlanta's ' ''Great ' Speckled'
the new moods of tl.e youth f Bird has a circulation of more
movement. Where once the than 12,000 and is one of the
pages promoted urban guer- most popular weeklies, straight
rilla warfare, now they delve or underground, in the South.,'
into local problems and issues Four years ago it, was dis-:
of interest to a wide range of paragingly denounced as "that:
citizens. hippie 'paper" by Atlanta citi-'
"The underground press rep- zens. But today it has consider
resented the', vanguard of the enable influence and features:
revolutionaty_ struggle, says local community- -coverage:
Tom Forcade, a Zippie -Wash- along with its own brand of',
/ ir.gton correspondent for the radical politics:- A recent issue;
Underground Press Syndicate included articles on housing'
and self-styled, authority on the shortages =.for blacks and rate;
underground scene:' hikes 'by. the- Georgia Power',
"But what did all the kids Company. ;
living in hippie pads care j, Underground, papers have:
about bombs? Now the papers nct only. popularized every-:
are becoming much-.more. rele- thing in., the- counter-culture,
vent and realistic. They write , from drugs -to dropping out,
about the alternative -ihstitu- they. have also aided the lao-
.tions of the community like 'mentum of causes like ecology,,
day-care centers, the food co-H.women's liberation and peace.
ops, the health clinics." Activists credit the Ann.
Many underground papers Arbor Stuff for helping elect.
hate begun ' aiming. at a! two radicals to the City Coun-:
broader audience, adding book, cil and for lower fines for
MORI/CDF
.,..
'Los A/L Ga ~lr ~j Y`FC1~
marijuana smokers. Boston
After Dark and the Phoenix
claim their Investigative sto-.
ries were instrumental in halt-
ing construction of the Park
Plaza urban renewal project
that many felt threatened .the
community.
Approved For Release'2006/08/1'8 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000300230005-3 ,