Chaining the alternatives.

Suzanne Rabe was a first-year student at the Arizona State University in 1971 when she came across "New Times," a newspaper started a year earlier by a group of students and dropouts to protect the war in Vietnam. One day, Rabe was working at the campus library when Michael Lacey walked in and introduced himself as a college dropout. anymore. From its rebellious roots, New Times Inc. has grown to a national chain that owns eight alternative newsweeklies stretching from Miami to San Francisco, plus an advertising group that represents six other papers. It hires lots of writers at salaries of $35,000 or more. It still takes on everyone from corporate polluters to corrupt politicians, but it also takes pains to distance itself from its radical past. INSET: The big six.