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. They span the political spectrum, but most frequently are progressive or radical left. Sometimes they combine the services of a news agency and a news syndicate. Among the primary clients are alternative weekly newspapers.

Examples

Progressive/Independent

Active

• Pacific News Service [1]
• Alternet [2]
• College Press Service (in its commercial incarnation)
• IPS Inter Press Service
• Mathaba News Agency
• AltWeeklies.com [3]
• AHN - All Headline News [4]

Defunct

• Liberation News Service Splintered off from College Press Service.
• New Liberation News Service
• Underground Press Service renamed Alternative Press Syndicate|Alternative Press Service
• College Press Service (student-run - in Washington, D.C. project of the United States Student Press Association)
• College Press Service (transformed into independent collective - in Denver)
• Alternative Press Features
• Community Press Features Founded circa 1971
• FPS Founded circa 1971 as a high school student news service with a sanitized name: "Free Public Schools."
• Dispatch News Service- Newly revived but no longer associated with the old organization.
• People’s Translation Service Founded circa 1972
• Zodiac News Serice Founded circa 1972
• Zoo World Newservice Founded circa 1972
• Earth News Service Founded circa 1972
• Newscript Dispatch Service Renamed from Earth News Service
• Tricontinental News Service Founded circa 1973
• New York News Service Founded circa 1973 by Rex Weiner and Deanne Stillman
• Appalachian News Service Founded circa 1974
• Her Say Founded circa 1977 by Marlene Edmunds of Zodiac News Service.

See also

• Alternative press (US political left)
• Alternative press (US political right)
• Alternative media

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.

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