Village Voice Media being acquired by New Times very soon

My money is on either angry art director or incompetent intern

It does have a slightly "break every design rule" quality to it, but not quite enough so to be "anti-aesthetic." It's weird to think someone actually went to the trouble to make that Statue of Liberty illustration -- wonder if it's modified clip art or something.

http://media.villagevoice.com/10081112.128.jpg

http://media.villagevoice.com/10081114.75.jpg

the sandwich one...

is it a drag SOL doing the Heisman?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/nyregion/village-voice-sold-to-peter-barbey-owner-of-a-pennsylvania-newspaper.html

Peter D. Barbey, through his investment company Black Walnut Holdings L.L.C., bought the paper from Voice Media Group, which owns a string of weeklies around the country.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Mr. Barbey declined to discuss the details.

However, in an interview, he vowed to invest in the paper and once again make it relevant in the cultural life of New York City.

“I realize that The Voice has had a unique journalistic role in New York and the country as a whole,” Mr. Barbey, 58, said. “That deserves to survive and prosper.”

The paper, he said, was once an essential “voice of the arts and cultural community in New York.” While he will not take over full control of the paper until February, Mr. Barbey said he would focus first on bolstering its arts coverage — mainly by attracting top writers.

“Over the years it’s been known as a place that made writers’ reputations,” Mr. Barbey said. “If you were a good writer, you wanted to write for The Voice.”

“One of the biggest problems in media today is lack of attention to content,” he said. “Many publications have stripped their content.”

That will not happen under his watch, he said.

When asked about the financial resources he would devote to the paper, Mr. Barbey would not be specific but noted that his family’s wealth could be ascertained quickly through a Google search.

The Barbeys rank 48th on the Forbes list of America’s wealthiest families.

hm
anybody got some perspective on this?

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2015/10/8579442/meet-peter-barbey-latest-owner-take-village-voice

Skeptics will abound, including some of those very Voice vets.

"You mean the Voice still exists?" Hoberman sniffed when asked for his thoughts on the sale. Seriously though: "Even if the new owners are inclined to spend money, they'll have a near impossible time restoring any credibility."

"Weeklies, accustomed to big reports without much of a time peg, seem to have had a particularly difficult transition to a mixed digital/print publishing model," Poynter Institute media analyst Rick Edmonds wrote on Monday. "Best case — Barbey will also infuse some money and editorial vitality into the Village Voice. But I wouldn’t look for a turnaround ... given how much the business base for the Voice and similar publications has deteriorated."

i feel like you'd have to be very VERY rich to actually sink enough money into the VV to turn it around and not worry about the losses. is he that rich?

yes
http://nypost.com/2015/10/12/pennsylvania-family-set-to-own-the-village-voice/

The Barbey family, the 48th richest in America, according to Forbes — with a net worth of $6.1 billion — derives most of its fortune from a 20 percent stake in apparel maker VF Corp., maker of Lee, Wrangler and North Face apparel.

welp http://fusion.kinja.com/the-village-voices-liberal-savior-owner-is-trying-to-cr-1796054657

The Village Voice is ending its weekly print edition. End of a journalism era in New York City.

— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) August 22, 2017

Village Voice ownership shutters paper, will continue it "as a brand" online and as "a host of new events, products and initiatives." https://t.co/HUu3C8yBXu

— Nick Pinto (@macfathom) August 22, 2017

oof

The Village Voice also published this. I feel reason #15, by @mgerber937, is one of the greatest jokes in history https://t.co/88NBsbMCt6 pic.twitter.com/bMLTEyi1SV

— Jon Schwarz (@tinyrevolution) August 22, 2017

Yeah this is sad. Yoko used to take out these cool full page ads, a couple in the last year or so, with photos of her and John and lyrics to songs or other things and I wonder if she'll continue this online and I'd guess not

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-were-losing-when-we-say-goodbye-to-alt-weeklies-the-rebels-of-journalism/2017/08/23/abc8e5f4-876d-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html?utm_term=.37d156cb0c5f

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/23/america-alt-weeklies-baltimore-city-paper-village-voice

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/08/25/545810902/village-voice-music-editors-writers-stories

R.I.P.
http://gothamist.com/2018/08/31/village_voice_is_officially_dead.php

I, for one, wish/hope someone/somewhere picks up Pazz & Jop and continues it.

"today is kind of a sucky day" jfc

its been a long goodbye but it still hurts

L.A. Weekly still creaking along w/me-first careerists sticking around for the new right-wing regime

dumb question, i guess: why doesn't some liberal billionaire buy up all the papers that need help, install good managers, and be a hero?

i realize it's hard to hemorrhage money forever, but some people can afford it. why not hire the right people and tell them "hey, lose as little money as you can, please, but i've got your back. and also keep tinkering with new methods and content and who knows maybe you'll hit on something that helps in a big way."

this is what i would do if i had the money.

there's Jeff Bezos I guess

he said liberal

tbh after the print ed shut, i never looked at it unless i saw a link to a piece.

by that definition "liberal billionaire" is an oxymoron

Wrote many times in the late '00s yet even with the superb editors who tightened my sentences (never forgot a PHONE line edit with Chuck Eddy in early 2006) there was already a sense in which the clock was ticking. I'm sorry I lived long enough to see this day.

I'm amazed our two alt-weeklies have survived the shrinkage since they had to stop running sex work ads - the Dallas Observer is a shell that runs a scattering of local political news and reprints national stories (from New Times, I guess?), the FW Weekly is even smaller but pretty left-wing, they've been running stories from local DSA people every so often.

this is what i would do if i had the money.

I wrote a letter to the VV in the '90s about Public Enemy's homophobia (Flavor Flav's really), and someone phoned me to carefully line-edit that.

I think it's safe to say that without the Village Voice I might never have achieved my dream of being a childless 37-year-old debt-ridden "critic's critic" with a niche social media presence and chronic knee pain RIP.

— 𝕿𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝕰𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖞 𝕯𝖆𝖞 (@NickPinkerton) August 31, 2018

I care somewhat, not much. The end of the print run seemed much more historically significant. But the online version meant there was still Pazz & Jop, and without that, I'll literally lose my final motivation (following the end of my "freelance" "career" and the implosion of a college radio station where I had a show) to keep up with new music.

Pleasure? I guess I could try that.

wasn't sure which thread to bump, but...

I know it was only a shadow of itself over the last several years, but the actual demise of the Village Voice makes me very nostalgic

It was the print publication that I cared about above all others in the 80s and 90s. there were so many great writers who contributed to it

oh I see this thread has already been revived!

This last (hopefully just latest) owner proclaimed that he intended to bring back the pre-New Times glory days, but I later read that he'd invested in extremely expensive real estate, a palace in the Village/ Also he busted or greatly impaired the union (the Voice had its own union). So a capital drain, talent drain (I know several people who made a point of avoiding the place/brand after that, though they all needed/need the work).
I, for one, wish/hope someone/somewhere picks up Pazz & Jop and continues it.
Maybe a GoFundMe? Too much for a labor of love, also too much for noobs.

Maybe most of all a credibility drain? Other activities showing what his real priorities were (dude might've been lying to himself, even).

I was there when Nat Hentoff cleaned his office. They filled dumpsters. I took a bunch of Philip Roth books that were left out. I learned that I hate Philip Roth.

lol

VV died for me when Chuck E was fired, not sure I missed a lot

what would it really take to keep P&J going somewhere else?

- someone w/ time and/or $, plus motivation
- a platform
- VV's mailing list
- some way to tabulate

am i missing something major?

revive jackin' pop

But the online version meant there was still Pazz & Jop, and without that, I'll literally lose my final motivation to keep up with new music.

this is kind of astonishing to me

I'm an astonishing person.

Old too

I listen to hours of music most days, often completely new-to-me, but still expect the ILX annual tracks poll to point me in new directions for songs, movements and artists more than anything else during the year. clemenza otm.

Old too

That's it, dyl. I don't know how old you are, but, absent any professional obligations, I don't think it's that unusual to lose track of the plot in your mid-50s. Most everyone I know in my non-rock-critic life lost it in their early 20s. (I do get a lot of satisfaction out of putting together a year-end list with comments, though, so I'm just dumb enough to keep doing it for my homepage.)

new music in the pop vein is generally not for me, i've heard enough. 90% of P&J was a mystery to me 10 years ago.

if they're so dead why do new articles keep showing up? admittedly they're all by the same person. and one of them's about jethro tull. stands to reason they'd finally get their due via dead voice.

let's twist again
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/business/media/village-voice-new-owner.html