Village Voice Media being acquired by New Times very soon

Thought maybe this revive was about another wave of classic jazz albums we should hear before we die.

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/01/09/sf-weekly-sold-to-bay-guardian-publisher/

, Voice Media Group will continue to own and operate the following print publications and corresponding digital properties: Village Voice (New York), LA Weekly (Los Angeles), Westword (Denver), New Times (Phoenix), Houston Press, Dallas Observer, Riverfront Times (St. Louis), New Times (Miami), City Pages (Minneapolis), New Times (Broward) and OC Weekly (Orange County).

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Seattle-Weekly-sold-to-Sound-Publishing-4179877.php

For now.

boy it would be nice if somebody bought them and rethought the game.

i got $47 in my checking account, lemme see how many papers i can buy with that

man, i looked at the voice website this morning wondering if p+j was up yet, it's total garbage now

i never read any of those sites anymore, laweekly especially is sickeningly terrible.

"The sale of SF Weekly will allow Voice Media Group to focus on growth opportunities for mobile and online platforms and to develop core digital offerings in its other key markets."

so another blogging platform full stop is the gameplan then.

just looked at the voice website just now. holy *shit* is that ugly, like throwback to 1996 webdesign, netscape navigator 1.0 compatible ugly. and then there are just huge amounts of links to articles in basically three blogs/"verticals" and that seems like the entire goddamn site.

I was always glad that the Metro Times was never bought by these clowns.

God I love digital properties.

thank got Seattle Weekly wasn't sold to the Seattle Times, as was rumored. hopefully it will become semi-decent again.

michael musto must feel like the queen fuckin bee these days

so this guy writes about rap for the voice now are you guys big fans?

http://grindtimenow.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/featurechaz.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJu451qyZL0

i'm feeling it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmmpTKHOXRE

Wow this is really bad.

looks like heath ledger as shat out by corey haim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKPvdcEfETA
damn, you're serious: he IS writing about hip hop for the voice

i googled up a few articles of his and they don't seem particularly offensive.

http://www.lowtimespodcast.com/the-la-weekly-posted-some-garbage-now-i-want-to-talk-to-them/

even when held up against the rest of the paper/site, west coast sound is particularly terrible.

Was just going to post that. The Voice has been posting piles and piles of perv pic features from various events around the city, but there's something even more creepy about it being gifs. Plus at least most of the Voice pics are from like "sexy" events where people are all publicly displaying sexuality on purpose, iirc.

Welp:

Will Bourne, who became editor-in-chief of The Village Voice in November, and Jessica Lustig, the deputy editor since January, are leaving the weekly publication.

They met with the staff at 11 p.m. on Thursday and said that Christine Brennan, executive editor of Voice Media Group, had instructed them to cut five positions from the 20-person staff. Rather than implementing the cuts, they resigned and left immediately.

the Voice is soon going to be a single guy in his underwear posting clickporn photo sets of sex events

"From your mouth to God's ears," says a lurking Ben Westhoff.

lol staff of 15, i really had no idea.

Is that editorial staff or total? I mean either way damn.

how small can the staff get before 'editor-in-chief' is a bigger title than the organization can bear

editorial staff, apparently.

As someone who put out a monthly mag with a total staff of 3, plus freelancers, I'm kinda surprised it takes 20 people to put out something as shitty as the 2013 Voice.

1) its weekly. 2) it has lots of bloggyblogs. 3) actually i don't know beyond that i don't pay attention anymore.

oh right 4) it occasionally still has real legwork in actually reporting feature stories and it theoretically pays staff to do that and not just freelancers.

there is admittedly a lot of legwork even in digging up salacious details on stories like that one about the real estate magnate's wife who did cocaine and had an affair with a cartel hitman who owned a monster truck racetrack which was a cover for snuff film production.

http://www.villagevoice.com/about/staff/

Editor in Chief Will Bourne
Deputy Editor Jessica Lustig
Arts and Culture Editor
Film Editor Alan Scherstuhl
Music Editor Brian McManus
Copy Chief
Web Editor Nick Greene
Senior Associate Editors Angela Ashman, Araceli Cruz, Nick Murray
Staff Writers Michael Feingold, James King, Michael Musto, Nick Pinto, Graham Rayman, Tejal Rao
Contributors Melissa Anderson, Allen Barra, Roy Edroso, Deborah Jowitt, Chantal Martineau, Nick Pinkerton, John Surico, Robert Sietsema, Alexis Soloski
Contributing Copy Editor Benjamin Mercer
Editorial Fellows Emily Gogolak, Jason Lewis
Editorial Interns Alexandra Bell, Brittany Spanos, Christopher Weller, Diana Clarke, Leah Butterfield
Associate Editor Heather Baysa
Arts Assistant Eric Sundermann

xpost -- why are you not linking that story right now.

I wonder if McAnus will get a promotion. Failing upwards, etc.

Fin:

Last week, top editors at the Village Voice resigned in protest when they learned that management wanted them to lay off several members of their already-decimated staff. This morning, those layoffs came down. They're not pretty.

We hear that executives from the Voice's parent company flew in for today's massacre. Michael Musto, the Voice's nightlife columnist and most high profile remaining staffer, has been let go, as was rumored last week. (There had apparently been some talk of Musto's column hanging on in some form, but that does not seem to have worked out.) Also let go, sources tell us, was Robert Sietsema, the Voice's longtime food critic, and Michael Feingold, the paper's theater critic. Feingold was scheduled to host the Obie Awards for the Voice next week.

Should be polled: http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-06-22/columns/why-i-hate-being-gay/

those are the last 3 columnists I read, btw, and obv the last 3 longtimers.

tho Zacharek on film I will still look at

man, gutted. they're done huh.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/business/media/michael-musto-and-robert-sietsema-leave-village-voice.html?_r=0

more reaction to firing of Musto, Sietsema, & Feingold

http://nypost.com/2013/10/23/spinmedia-to-slash-staff-again/

lol @ owning "absolutepunk.net"

Break For Killer Kennedy Cuz!

Forks, there is discussion of that on the Pitchfork thread:

pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

gotcha. I've stuck my nose in that thread lately; the discussion seems pretty good.

Is there gonna be a Pazz & Jop poll?

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/28/how-the-village-voiceandotheraltweeklieslosttheirvoicein2013.html

Long think piece on the decline of American alt-weeklies and New Times

how many interviews does a reporter have to do before his piece can be called something other than a "thinkpiece"