Underground Press Syndicate

Underground Press Syndicate
Company typeSyndication
Founded1966; 58 years ago (1966)
FoundersWalter Bowart, John Wilcock, Art Kunkin, Max Scherr, Michael Kindman, and Harvey Ovshinsky
Defunctc. 1978 (1978)
FateDefunct
SuccessorAlternative Press Syndicate (APS)
Area served
United States, Canada & Europe
Key people
Tom Forcade
ProductsUnderground Press Service
SubsidiariesAPSmedia

The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate (APS), was a network of countercultural 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.

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[1] — a 1971 roster listed 271 UPS-affiliated papers in the United States, Canada, and Europe.[2] The underground press' combined readership eventually reached into the millions.[3]

For many years the Underground Press Syndicate was run by Tom Forcade, who later founded High Times magazine.

  1. ^ "1966 Underground Press Syndicate Roster". The Rag. November 21, 1966.
  2. ^ Hoffman, Abbie (1971). "1971 Underground Press Syndicate Roster". Steal This Book. Pirate Editions / Grove Press. ISBN 1-56858-053-3.
  3. ^ McMillian, John (2011). Smoking typewriters: the Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531992-7.