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The ''Berkeley Barb'' was a weekly underground newspaper that was published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers of the late 1960s, covering such subjects as the anti-war and civil-rights movements as well as the social changes advocated by the youth culture. ==History== The newspaper was founded in August 1965 by Max Scherr, a middle-aged radical who had earlier been the owner of the Steppenwolf bar in Berkeley. Scherr was the editor and publisher from the newspaper's inception until the mid-1970s. The ''Barb'' carried a great deal of political news, mainly concerning opposition to the Vietnam War and activist political events surrounding the University of California, particularly the Vietnam Day Committee and the Free Speech Movement. It also served as a venue for music advertisements and starting around 1967 was the first of the underground papers to have an extensive classified ad section carrying explicit personal sex advertisements. Eventually about a third of the paper was occupied by various forms of sexual advertising: as well as the personals there were ads for X-rated films, pornographic bookstores, mail order novelties and classifieds for models and massage, all both gay and straight. Gratuitous photos of nude models spilled over into the news section. The radical politics + sex formula worked, and the ''Barb'' was one of the top-selling underground papers in the nation. However, efforts to clone this formula in other cities (e.g. ''Rat'' in New York City) ran into resistance from staff, readers and local authorities; female staffers and supporters from the ''Berkeley Tribe'' staged a sit-in at San Francisco's ''Dock of the Bay'' to successfully block publication of a proposed spin-off sex paper, and when male staffers at ''Good Times'' tried to put out a special "Sex" issue, women staffers stole the mock-ups and page layouts and burned them. In 1969, under pressure from an underpaid and rebellious staff which believed, based primarily on information from an accountant, that Scherr was making windfall profits (the ''Barb'' may have been the only underground newspaper of which this could be said), Scherr sold the paper for $200,000 to Allan Coult, a professor of anthropology. The deal fell apart shortly afterwards and Scherr resumed ownership, cancelling the agreement after Coult failed to make the initial payment. At this point almost all of the 40 person staff, including managing editor James A. Schreiber, walked out and formed the "Red Mountain Tribe." After putting out a special ''Barb on Strike'' issue, they launched their own rival newspaper, the ''Berkeley Tribe'', which soon claimed a circulation of 53,000 copies.〔Peck, Abe. ''Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press'' (New York: Pantheon, 1985).〕 Meanwhile Scherr, who had locked the doors and then stolen the files and equipment out of his own offices, continued publishing the ''Barb'' out of new offices with a new staff. The paper continued to be successful for a few years; but the heyday of the underground press was passing and the ''Barb'' was caught up in the general downhill trend, with contributor burnout and slowly dropping circulation and ad revenues leading to a vicious circle of decline. In 1978, with circulation down to 20,000 copies and dropping, the numerous sex ads were spun off into a separate publication, ''Spectator Magazine.'' Freed of the stigma of "adults only" but deprived of advertising income, the ''Barb'' went out of business within a year and a half. The final issue was dated July 3, 1980.〔(Timeslines site )〕 ''Spectator Magazine'' ceased publication in October 2005.〔Wendy McElroy. ''(XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography )'', 1995. Chapter 7.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Berkeley Barb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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