The Real Paper - Between The Lines

Between The Lines

Harper Barnes, the 1970-72 Phoenix editor, was a book columnist for The Real Paper and The Chicago Reader in the late 1970s. After writing for The Real Paper, advice columnist Monica Collins wrote for local and national newspapers and magazines; she currently does the syndicated column "Ask Dog Lady."

In 1975, The Real Paper was purchased by Ralph I. Fine, David Rockefeller, Jr., and others, taking a more commercial slant; in competition with the Phoenix, the publication began to distribute a free edition at Boston-area college campuses under the nameplate "The Free Paper." After a 1978 peak, money from investors slackened, and the publication began to lose steam with a $250,000 loss in 1980, followed by many staff changes before the 1981 collapse.

Jeff McLaughlin, describing the 1981 Boston arts scene in the Boston Globe, (January 4, 1982), wrote:

Hardest hit was journalism. Financial problems caused The Real Paper to cease publication, silencing a voice that was devoted to community-based efforts in the arts as in other cultural fields. The Phoenix won new readers with The Real Paper's demise, but its arts focus is more national than local.

Fred Barron, who had written for both The Phoenix and The Real Paper, used his alternative newspaper experiences as the basis for a screenplay, Between the Lines, filmed in 1977 by Joan Micklin Silver. The success of that film led to a short-lived TV sitcom, also titled Between the Lines.

The Real Paper has been issued on microfilm by Bell and Howell.