[1] The Phoenix was founded in 1965 by Joe Hanlon, a former editor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's student newspaper, The Tech.

For three years, Boston After Dark kept the four-page format, with Lewis as publisher, Jane Steidemann as editor, Stephen M. Mindich as ad salesman and Stark as full-time theater critic and copy editor, plus film reviews by Deac Rossell, who later went on to become head of programming at London's National Film Theatre.

Stark quit in 1972 and began reviewing for the rival Cambridge Phoenix, which had begun October 9, 1969, started by Jeffrey Tarter.

The first managing editor of the Cambridge Phoenix was April Smith, who later became a novelist (Good Morning, Killer) and TV writer-producer (Cagney & Lacey, Lou Grant, Nightmares & Dreamscapes).

A statement from publisher Mindich in that issue blamed the 2007 financial crisis and changes in the media business, particularly the downturn in print advertising revenue, as the reasons for the closing.

[14] Although the Daily Sun would cease publication one month later, the Portland Phoenix continues to be published weekly by new owners.

In January 2019, the owner of the since-renamed Country News Club, Mark Guerringe, announced that the Portland Phoenix would move from once weekly to bi-weekly.

On July 23, 2023, the Portland Phoenix published its final issue, citing a decline in advertising revenue related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November 2015, The Boston Globe announced that Mindich, with the help of former Phoenix columnist and current Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy,[16] had donated the Phoenix's archives to Northeastern University's Snell Library Archives and Special Collections.

[20] Records from the Boston WFNX radio station were donated to Northeastern University's Snell Library Archives and Special Collections.

[21][17][18] In 2020, the online citizen science website Zooniverse started archiving the 1974 card file index, with the help of site users.

In 1994, Phoenix classical music writer Lloyd Schwartz was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.