In 1955 a group of friends living in Greenwich Village in New York City, among them novelists Norman Mailer and Don Wolf, started a weekly publication called the Village Voice. Explosively popular within the Greenwich Village subculture, the Voice became the prototype for the 1960s alternative press phenomenon. Unlike publications which relied heavily on the Associated Press, it scorned detachment and neutrality in reporting.
Cover of the pioneer issue of the Village Voice, October, 1955 (link)
In The Media of Mass Communication author John Vivian describes the characteristics of counter culture newspapers that were pioneered by the Voice:
-extensive entertainment coverage and listings of events
-a controversial and crude style
-extensive personal ads for dating and sex liaisons
-an excess of advertising, necessary to maintaining a publication for a small, specific audience
