The Underground Press Syndicate, commonly known as UPS, and later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate or APS, was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in 1967 by the publishers of several early underground papers, including the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the San Francisco Oracle, and the Chicago Seed. In the South, the first to join was The Charlotte Inquisition. In sociology, counterculture is a term used to describe a cultural group whose values and norms are at odds with those of the social mainstream, a cultural equivalent of a political opposition. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... The phrase underground press, especially underground newspapers (or simply underground papers) is, these days, most often used in reference to the alternative print media, independently published and distributed, associated with the countercultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. ... The East Village Other (often abbreviated as EVO), was a leading underground newspaper in New York City during the late 1960s. ... The Los Angeles Free Press (often called the Freep) was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s, and it is often cited as the first such paper. ... The Oracle of the City of San Francisco, also known as the San Francisco Oracle, was an underground newspaper published in the late 1960s. ...

UPS members agreed to allow all other members to freely reprint their contents. And 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. As it evolved, the Underground Press Syndicate created an Underground Press Service, and later its own magazine.

Shortly after the formation of the UPS, the number of "underground" papers throughout North America expanded dramatically. The phrase underground press, especially underground newspapers (or simply underground papers) is, these days, most often used in reference to the alternative print media, independently published and distributed, associated with the countercultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...

For many years the Underground Press Syndicate was run by Tom Forcade, who later founded High Times magazine. After a 1973 meeting of underground and alternative newspapers in Boulder, Colorado, the name was changed to the Alternative Press Syndicate (APS). APS was an attempt to reinvent the syndicate to compete with the growing network of alternative weeklies networked by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; but failed, and the AAN supplanted its role. Thomas King Forcade, known as Tom Forcade, was an underground press reporter and activist in the 1970s. ... High Times is a United States based magazine. ... Boulder (, Mountain Time Zone) is a city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. ... Recent cover of Portland, Oregons Willamette Week An alternative weekly is a type of weekly newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. ... The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) is the trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in the United States. ...

Internal link

• News agency (alternative)

An alternative news agency (or alternative news service) operates in a similar fashion to a commercial news agency, but defines itself as an alternative to commercial or mainstream operations. ...

References

• Voices from the Underground (Vol. 2): A Directory of Resources and Sources on the Vietnam Era Underground Press Has article about the Underground Press Syndicate and other period alternative news services.