The Village Voice
'Village Voice' fires Michael Musto in yet another round of cuts
Gawker's Hamilton Nolan has the scoop on the latest bloodbath at The Village Voice, which has been slowly but steadily shedding veteran staffers since it was acquired in 2006 by the Phoenix-based New Times Media turned Village Voice Media turned Voice Media Group. More
New 'Voice' editor Will Bourne earns early high marks from Michael Musto, but he's got a steep climb
The long-time Voice gossip columnist said he met his new boss when Bourne paid a visit to the paper's downtown offices on Wednesday. More
The 'Voice' moves on, and so does Tony Ortega
It's only been a week since Tony Ortega's last day as editor-in-chief of The Village Voice, which is searching for a successor under a newly formed parent company in which the Voice will no longer share business with the controversial classified website Backpage.com. More
(3)Village Voice Media: 'Absolutely no' ongoing relationship between alt-weeklies and Backpage.com, financial or otherwise
We wondered whether those investors included (former) Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey and/or chief executive Jim Larkin, the erstwhile Village Voice Media controlling shareholders who will continue to run Backpage.com as a separate entity. "No," Lacey told Capital, reached for comment via his Village Voice Media email address. More
'Village Voice' editor-in-chief (and chief Scientology antagonist) Tony Ortega leaves the paper, amid downsizing and turmoil
"Next week will be my last as editor of the Voice," Ortega wrote. "I will be leaving to pursue a book proposal about Scientology in its time of crisis." More
(4)Meet Liz McDougall, the unlikely-seeming lawyer defending Village Voice Media in Backpage controversy
Somehow, Liz McDougall doesn't seem the type who defends big corporations from attacks by law enforcement agencies, clergy groups, and celebrity do-gooders who say they want to end the trafficking of minors and immigrants for sex.
A slender but athletic woman with pixie-cut short brown hair and a friendly face, the attorney has more than a decade of experience in cybercrime law; more than two decades of pro-bono work defending exploited women and children. She looks younger than the depth of her career, and her 1993 degree from New York University's law school suggests she must be. More
(1)Two more: Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 'High Times' pull Village Voice Media ads due to Backpage.com controversy
The Tribeca Performing Arts Center, which is run under the auspices of CUNY's Borough of Manhattan Community College, will no longer advertise with the company's namesake paper, The Village Voice, after this week. And Trans High Corporation, the parent company of High Times magazine, announced in a press release on Monday that it would "discontinue any advertising or promotional relationship with Village Voice Media due to their continued financial stake in Backpage.com." More
Will someone please buy 'The Village Voice' back from Phoenix?
The Village Voice is not for sale. But somebody needs to save it, and that means somebody needs to find a way to buy it.
It needs to be saved from its disastrous involvement in the adult-services advertising business. Perhaps more importantly, it needs to be saved from the "alternative press" culture at its Phoenix-based parent company, a culture that in a vacuum is noble and out in the world is broadly successful and even journalistically sound, but which doesn't work for the city or for the Voice. More
(1)Son of 'Village Voice' co-founder Norman Mailer joins sex-trafficking protest outside paper's headquarters
John Buffalo Mailer, a handful of elected officials and about 100 protesters gathered outside the newspaper's Cooper Square headquarters; a statement from the company in response said nothing about the company's reliance on the $22 million in revenue its controversial adult-services site, Backpage.com, brings the struggling media company. More
(2)An NYPD report quietly confirms a whistleblower's quota claims
Graham Rayman of the Village Voice gets his hands on a 95-page report the NYPD conducted, but never released publicly, confirming a whistleblower's claim that his precinct in Brooklyn was ordering officers to hit quotas and under-report crimes. More
City Council to weigh in on Village Voice Media's controversial adult-services classifieds
Backpage is both a boon and a headache for Village Voice Media, which acquired its flagship publication in 2006 under a previous corporate title, New Times Media. While the site serves as a revenue driver for a publisher trying to keep a national chain of cash-strapped alt-weeklies afloat, it's also cast a cloud of controversy over the company, which has been facing mounting pressure to stop running the seedy online classifieds. Activists say the site provides a forum by which minors can be sold into prostitution. More
In latest report, circulation is up for 'New York,' 'New Yorker'
New York magazine's average circulation increased .1 percent to 405,532, according to the latest data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations; though newsstand sales were down 7.6 percent to 14,204, that's less of a decline than the industry as a whole saw (nearly 10 percent).
The New Yorker's average circulation, meanwhile, increased 2.2 percent to 1,047,260, and newsstand sales were up 2.8 perecent to 33,530. More
At Atlantic digital, a series of new hires
Bob Cohn, editorial director of Atlantic Digital, announced a handful of new hires this morning, including Jen Doll, who will leave her post at The Village Voice's Runnin' Scared blog to become a senior writer at The Atlantic Wire. (That makes her the 16th Voice employee to depart in the past year by way of attrition or layoffs, according to several insiders who have apparently been keeping count.) More
(2)Ousted 'Voice' critic J. Hoberman posts farewell to 'Das Blog of Shameless Self-Promotion'
His first freelance piece was sold in 1972, a review of the avant-garde film Flaming Creatures, he told colleagues in the email, which he also posted to his website, J-Hoberman.com, in an article with the headline: "It’s Here… DAS BLOG OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION!!!" More
Film critic J. Hoberman is out at 'The Village Voice'
The news leaked out in a tweet from the music writer Mike Rubin minutes ago: "A CINEMATIC SIN: Further diluting what's left of their "brand," Village Voice laid off J. Hoberman today, senior film critic since 1988." More
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