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Harrisburg Independent Press
A Decade in Retrospect: 1971-1980
An Archive of Pennsylvania's Alternative Community Newspaper
![Harrisburg Independent Press Bird holding the newspaper in its wing](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/41cb34_a38bc2489c054f9192d978dd18606299~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_196,h_199,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/41cb34_a38bc2489c054f9192d978dd18606299~mv2.png)
![Anita Harris in a field at Cornell in the 1970s](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/41cb34_a9428ec53b55498fbae48d5d9f9a6e02~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_14,w_269,h_375/fill/w_132,h_184,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Anita_Harris_at%20Cornell_6in.jpg)
![Ed Zuckerman, editor of the Harrisburg Independent Press, Headshot from the 1970s](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/41cb34_c51a2a4e41094fcbbc146eeef143cf8e~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_4,y_86,w_281,h_340/fill/w_132,h_159,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/41cb34_c51a2a4e41094fcbbc146eeef143cf8e~mv2.jpg)
A Truly Independent Press
The Harrisburg Independent Press was published in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1971 to 1980. The weekly newspaper was founded to provide alternative news for the Harrisburg 7 trial during the Vietnam War. After the trial ended, the newspaper, known by its readers as HIP, continued on.
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"The Harrisburg Independent Press has a muckracking spirit which for a newspaper of limited means and circulation is awesome."
- The Boston Globe
HIP: A Personal History
by Jim Wiggins
I first heard of the Harrisburg Independent Press in the spring of 1972, when I spotted a help-wanted ad on the bulletin board of the Daily Collegian, the student newspaper at Penn State where I’d worked prior to my graduation that March.
I was hanging around State College, papering my apartment with rejection letters from various news organizations that had decided they somehow could function quite well, thank you, without my services.
![HIP staff on car Christmas 1972](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/41cb34_048ed139019041ef86dc86e5c9dfe4a7~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_12,y_8,w_796,h_484/fill/w_91,h_55,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/41cb34_048ed139019041ef86dc86e5c9dfe4a7~mv2.jpg)
![Harrisburg Independent Press Volume 1 Number 1](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/41cb34_1648cff5099044ba8809ef8be8eb8289~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_123,h_89,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/41cb34_1648cff5099044ba8809ef8be8eb8289~mv2.jpg)
The First Issue
Welcome to the first issue of the Harrisburg Independent Press, a brand-new, truly independent newspaper, dedicated to serving the Harrisburg Area with a responsible alternative journalistic voice.
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We will not seek controversy for its own sake, but we will welcome it for the sake of reform and revelation.