The city’s war on free publications — as evidenced by the attempted ban on news boxes in the Back Bay — has moved to another front. Publications involved in the Back Bay battle with the city say that even their news boxes located outside the contested area are often removed without notice — a fate that escapes the news boxes of paid publications, such as the Boston Globe and Boston Herald.

The latest salvo from the city comes as three publications suing the city — Editorial Humor, the Improper Bostonian, and the Weekly Dig — await a legal ruling from a federal judge on whether their news boxes can remain in the Back Bay. (The distribution of the Boston Phoenix and its sister publication Stuff@Night will also be affected by the decision.) Judge Douglas Woodlock grilled lawyers for the publications and the city at a trial held on Monday. Earlier in the month, news boxes distributing free publications, including the Phoenix and Stuff@Night, were removed from Yawkey Way, while boxes for paid publications were left untouched — right before Opening Day at neighboring Fenway Park. According to the free publications, the Yawkey Way incident is not a unique occurrence.

Stephen Wade, the distribution manager for the paid Editorial Humor, says that when he goes to pick up his paper’s news boxes after they've been removed by the city, "I don’t tend to see a lot of Globe and Herald boxes."

"They don’t tell us [when boxes are removed]," says Bob Phillips, the publisher of the Improper. "They ignore their own rules. The unbelievable part about it is [that] when we miss boxes, they charge us $250 to get them back." (A 1996 Boston ordinance requires the city to send "by first-class mail, written notice of ... [news-box] removal to the certificate holder.")

"I think there’s definitely a bias to paid publications as opposed to free," says Jeffrey Lawrence, the publisher of the Weekly Dig.

While the mayor's office had no official comment, city sources told the Phoenix that city officials avoid removing paid news boxes because they store money, and the storage area for confiscated boxes is not securely locked down.