Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Dec. 11, 1995.
In one of the few instances of the Justice Department strong-arming journalists since the Nixon Administration, U.S. attorneys in Miami have convened a Federal grand jury to discover the identities of two reporters’ sources. In the process, Federal Government lawyers on the case have Read More
The Village Voice‘s editor in chief Will Bourne and deputy editor Jessica Lustig met with staff late this morning to announce they are leaving the paper rather than lay off any more of their already skeletal staff, The New York Times reported.
Voice Media Group executive editor Christine Brennan had told Mr. Bourne and Ms. Lustig that they would have to eliminate or drastically reduce five of the 20 postions at the paper. Read More
Village Voice Media is undergoing a makeover after some corporate maneuvering over the weekend. Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, the current owners of the alt-weekly newspaper chain, are selling it to the company’s current management. What basically amounts to a restructuring of the beleaguered company means that the newspapers are separating from Backpage.com, the controversial classified site that has been tied to sex trafficking and prostitution. Read More
Are you an editor in chief in need of a publication? Well, The Village Voice is hiring.
The Voice needs to replace Tony Ortega, who jumped ship/got pushed out of the alt weekly last week and is now focusing on Scientology-related pursuits. The ad for the position (below) was posted today on JournalismJobs.com. Read More
Two writers are having some crazy Twitter back-and-forth that is ostensibly interesting for its relatively flamboyant qualities, but doesn’t seem particularly worth understanding. On the other hand, there’s very little else happening today. In your Wednesday Evening Media Briefs, we will do our best to avoid covering it: Read More
Layoffs are hitting the editorial staff at The Village Voice today, and they’re hitting some of the most widely-read staff writers in the office. The Observer has heard from multiple sources familiar with the situation that the bad news is beginning to spread around the office, and that the following people are out at the Voice: Read More
Less than six months after laying off influential film critic J. Hoberman, The Village Voice has also lost its film editor, Allison Benedikt. Ms. Benedikt will run Slate’s women’s vertical, Double X, filling the post vacated by Jessica Grose when she jumped to New York‘s Vulture blog earlier this year. Read More
The Village Voice’s latest journalistic campaign has an unlikely target in its crosshairs: The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
Casual readers might think the alt-weekly champion of New York’s little guys and The Times’ in-house humanitarian would be bound by ideology. But as a result of two articles Mr. Kristof wrote this year about Voice sister company Backpage.com, he has become the subject of what he calls a “disingenuous” attack published on the The Village Voice website. Read More
Yesterday when The Village Voice(‘s only full-time African-American) journalist Steven Thrasher threw down his glove and challenged “newbie” Runnin’ Scared blogger James King to a public duel over some perceived “casual racism” in Mr. King’s blog posts, we were ready to get our Facebook invite to the smack-down of the century. In fact, we emailed both writers and asked for comments.
While Mr. Thrasher never replied, Mr. King told us he would be officially responding in a post today. Which he did, in an article called “Hey, Steven Thrasher, James King Here — Nice To ‘Meet’ You!“
So let’s check out the stats on that: Read More
Oooh, fight! Tony Ortega might have to go down to The Village Voice‘s cafeteria and separate Steven Thrasher from beating Running Scared‘s new kid* James King to a bloody pulp…with his words.
No, it’s not a physical fight, because this isn’t the Norman Mailer days anymore, but Mr. Thrasher, a 3-year veteran of the paper, has a few choice words (1363 of them, to be exact) regarding Mr. King’s “casual racism” in his colleague’s post. Read More
