After almost half a century of publication, and mere months after switching from newsprint to a slick magazine edition,. the Boston Phoenix abruptly came to an end.
I picked up the last issue from a kiosk Wednesday morning, not realizing it was the last.
I discovered the Phoenix as an undergrad in the 1970s. They charged for it then (the current Pjhoenix started distributing free a couple of years ago), but a free edition under the title Boston After Dark 9the paper’s original, hippie-era title) would be piled up weekly at area colleges. It was an unexpurgated paper, with outrageous personal ads in the back, and advertised what were clearly sexual services. It was great free entertainment. Its viewpoint was hip and liberal. It was much like the Chicago Readr (and, in fact, it ran The Straight Dope for many years).
There had been a schism in the 70s, with some of its staff going off to found The Real Paper, but that eventually merged back into the Phoenix, bring its Real Paper Puzzle with it.
The Puzzle and The Straight Dope are gone, but the paper remained interesting. Its outrageous adult section was still included as a set of pages (that some venues removed) until the Phoenix became a slick, at which point they were spun out as a separate publication called (again) Boston After Dark. I assume it will fold, as well.
The Phoenix’s own site, with (currently) its last issue:
I lived in the Boston area for seven years and recall the Phoenix fondly. Mostly for music listings. I definitely read the Phoenix more than the Globe and (God forbid) the Herald. It had the same irreverent style that my hometown alternative weekly, the Austin Chronicle, did. I didn’t know about the slick media 'zine conversion, and I’m sad to see it go.
Seems like there was a cool scene in the 90s-00s with Newbury Comics, WFNX, the Phoenix, and shows at the Paradise. I was kind of part of that.
The Phoenix introduced me to the Straight Dope. I read it regularly for much of the 90s. But, to be honest, I haven’t picked one up in about a decade or so, so I’m part of the reason it’s no more.
I have around here somewhere the Boston Phoenix Guide to Restaurants, published around 1978. I bought it while in Boston at a coin convention. We were there for about four nights. Eating out in the evening was one of the perks in the coin biz.
Their recommendations were superb. We went one night to an Italian place, and the guide said to get the fresh squeezed cannoli for dessert.
They filled the cannoli at our table after dinner. Never had better.
Yep. The only reason I ever learned about the Straight Dope was because they published the column in the Portland Phoenix, which I read beginning as a college student in the late 90s. I knew about the Portland paper several years before figuring out Boston had a version of it too.
The Boston Phoenix was exactly the same. Back in my college days reading the personals in Boston After Dark (the original name for the Phoenix, later applied to the free version distributed at local colleges) was the best free entertainment of the week.
Near the end of its run, the Boston Phoenix spun off its adult section as a completekly sepsrate publication, distributed in different dispensers.
Yes, even though the Phoenix is gone…its detritus remains. I can still see the street dispenser boxes everywhere-the homeless use them for trash disposal. And they would be a great place to stash a bomb. Amazing that nobody has forced the Phoenix to remove these eyesores.
That secton - “Boston at Nite” or somesuch - actually still exists. I guess they were able to beat off stiff competition from online advertisers of escorts.
