The Real Paper

The Real Paper was a Boston-area alternative weekly newspaper with a circulation in the tens of thousands. It ran from August 2, 1972, to June 18, 1981, often devoting space to counterculture and alternative politics of the early '70s. The offices were in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Cambridge Phoenix was born on October 9, 1969, founded by Jeffrey Tarter. In the summer of 1972, Richard Missner, owner of what was then simply called "The Phoenix," fired editor Harper Barnes in a journalistic dispute. A union was formed and almost all of the staff went on strike. An agreement was reached within two weeks, without Barnes' reinstatement. Soon afterwards, the staff was informed of the purchase of the paper – its name and goodwill – by Stephen Mindich, owner of the more established (and more commercial) competitor Boston After Dark. Hoping to eliminate his direct competition. Mindich renamed his paper The Boston Phoenix After Dark, later shortened back to The Boston Phoenix. The entire former staff of The Phoenix was now unemployed, the lone exception being the late sportswriter George Kimball, who went to work for Mindich. Because of the solidarity developed before and during the strike, the Cambridge group decided to continue publication as The Real Paper (by implication, "The Real Phoenix") and organized themselves as an employee-run cooperative. Bob L. Oliver, The Real Papers founding art director, was responsible for editorial and advertising graphic design from July 1972 to July 1973 and designed the paper's logo based on the original Phoenix type style. The Real Paper staff elected Robert Rotner as publisher, the late Jeff Albertson (a well-known staff photographer) as associate publisher, reporter Paul Solman as editor and Robert Williams as advertising director. The editorial staff included women's columnist Laura Shapiro, former editor Harper Barnes, rock critics Jon Landau and James Isaacs, reporters Charlie McCollum and Chuck Fager, cartoonist David Omar White, and writers Stephen Davis, C. Wendell Smith and Jon Lipsky. David Chandler was the first design director, succeeded by Ronn Campisi and later Lynn Staley, who later became the head of design at The Boston Globe and Newsweek and Lucy Bartholomay, who succeeded Staley at "The Globe." Photo editor Peter Southwick also went on to "The Globe" as photo editor and now directs Boston University's photojournalism program. Paula Childs, the listings editor, became a television reporter.

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