The front page of this first issue introduces the Free Press as “a radical alternative newspaper”. It promises to print news that “other people don't want you to read” — the sort of stories that the Post and Echo shy away from.

“As well as reporting police abuses, planning fiddles, Corporation incompetence and the suppression of news,” it says, “we will be giving a voice to those who are denied a platform for their views ... community groups, trade unionists, schoolchildren, gypsies, the coloured community. In a phrase — the people of Liverpool.”

• Community news in this issue includes stories on page 1 about residents angry over the route of a new motorway and a children's party broken up by police. A longer article on pages 6 and 7 looks at housing problems on the new Netherley estate. On the industrial front there are reports of disputes at Ford's Halewood factory (page 4) and Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead (page 6). There's also a longish piece on the finances of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board (page 5).

• Two other stories — about the harassment of gypsies/travellers (page 10) and the allegations of police planting drugs (page 3) — are a continuation of work that Free Press writers had been doing earlier for other publications (the Mersey People and Openings magazine).

• 'Counterspy' on page 2 is a collection of stories about sharp practices in the shops. This was a regular feature in the first few issues, motivated by the Liverpool Echo's lack of interest in protecting consumers and its apparent desire to turn its readers into shopaholics. Pak-o-Lies had raised this earlier after the Echo suppressed a story by two of its reporters who had been investigating bogus price reductions on household items. The Pak-o-Lies story is reprinted on page 4.

• On page 8 is an extract from The Little Red Schoolbook, copies of which had been seized by police on grounds of obscenity. The Free Press published further extracts in its first seven issues.

• Page 8 also has a critical article about church fund-raising in Liverpool Archdiocese, by a Catholic priest who had offered to write it anonymously.

• The “Informer” section on page 9 lists a variety of forthcoming events and activities. It became a regular feature of the paper, later expanding to a full page, and eventually to two pages with short articles on cultural topics.

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