By Hunter Walker 10/05/12 10:29pm

This Modern World

One of Tom Tomorrow's many characters. (Photo: Twitter)

Axed Cartoonist Blasts Village Voice Ownership, ‘Bain Capital of the Altweeklies’

Tom Tomorrow, the pseudonymous cartoonist who describes his comic strip, ‘This Modern World,’ as having run in the Village Voice “with a couple of small interruptions” since 1995 announced the paper ended its relationship with him today on his blog and in a series of expletive-laden tweets this evening.

“Unsurprising news: my cartoon just got shitcanned from the Village Voice by the assholes at corporate hq,” Mr. Tomorrow wrote.  Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 3:37pm

Backpage

A sampling of print sex ads from the pages of the Village Voice circa 2007.

Print Sex Ads Will Remain at Newly-Formed Voice Media Group

Backpage.com may be gone, but sex ads are here to stay at the alt weeklies formerly owned by Village Voice Media. Over the weekend, Village Voice Media announced it had reshuffled and separated its 13 newspapers from Backpage.com, the classifieds website with the controversial “adult” advertising section. Backpage may not be part of the newly-formed newspaper company, Voice Media Group, but that doesn’t mean its doing away with the highly profitable print sex ads.

“Voice Media Group will continue to support the current adult classifieds in Village Voice,” a spokesperson for Voice Media Group told the Observer this afternoon. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/14/12 12:14pm

Village People

Tony Ortega (Photo: Twitter)

Runnin’ Scared: Was Tony Ortega Pushed Out at the Village Voice?

The Village Voice’s EIC Tony Ortega announced in a blog post today that he is leaving the troubled alt-weekly to “pursue a book proposal about Scientology in its time of crisis.” Mr. Ortega attributed his departure to a desire to turn his “465 blog posts about Scientology” into a book that prompted him to make the jump, but sources with knowledge of the situation tell The Observer Mr. Ortega’s exit from the Voice was not his decision.  Read More

By Foster Kamer 9/05/12 5:39pm

MEDIA BRIEFS

Media-Buzz

Media Briefs: BuzzMedia Loses a Big Bill

Blog-eating media network BuzzMedia lost a top exec. Village Voice Media named someone who is popular for something to a top spot. The president of MSNBC is excited about winning, or as Charlie Sheen would have it: #Winning. In this edition of Wednesday Afternoon Media Briefs, it’s All Nihilism Everything: Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 1/30/12 10:40am

Print Problems

filmforum copy

Citing Concerns About Backpage.com, Film Forum Pulls Advertising from Village Voice

The independent Manhattan movie house Film Forum has decided to pull its advertising from the Village Voice, citing concerns about Backpage.com, the classifieds site owned by Voice parent company Village Voice Media.

Longtime Film Forum director Karen Cooper told Off the Record that Nicholas Kristof’s Friday op-ed in The New York Times prompted her decision. Read More

By Foster Kamer 1/04/12 7:07pm

LAYOFFS

hoberman

End of an Era: J. Hoberman is Out at the Village Voice, Staffers Mourn Former Critic and Labor Leader’s Departure

The Village Voice‘s longtime chief film critic and an institution at the paper, J. Hoberman, is out, his tenure ended by Village Voice Media as yet another in a long, ongoing series in staff reductions at the paper. The reactions from fellow staffers and among his contemporaries have been swift and unilateral in their disappointment and sadness. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 4/26/11 11:42pm

Media

Village Voice Media Getting Down and Dirty with Escort Ads

Last week, deputies in Polk County, Fla., arrested 60 people–including a Disney employee, a man with breast implants, a 15-year-old runaway with a 2-year-old infant, and her pimp–in an online prostitution bust dubbed Operation Curtain Call. A year ago the sensational sting would likely have been the next in a long litany of tabloid-friendly Craigslist Read More