[EVG photo from October]
Per Gothamist:
Three years after buying The Village Voice, and a year after the paper shut down its print edition, owner Peter Barbey told the remaining staff today that the publication will no longer be posting any new stories.
"Today is kind of a sucky day," Barbey told the staff...
Barbey said that half of the staff, which is around 15 to 20 people, will remain on to "wind things down," and work on a project to archive the Voice's material online.
A few reactions...
Good thing not to say when you fire a bunch of people and shut down an iconic publication:
— Katie Drummond (@katiedrumm) August 31, 2018
"Today is kind of a sucky day" https://t.co/SJXbFtXJnz
Fuck. https://t.co/W0UitLkeQT
— Tyler Coates (@tylercoates) August 31, 2018
It’s hard to even imagine New York without the Village Voice
— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) August 31, 2018
The worst thing about this whole thing is that Barbey, being a billionaire with delusions of grandeur, will never feel any real pain over this. https://t.co/cprFjxHvPD
— Zoë Beery (@noyinzoe) August 31, 2018
Unfortunately for us all, well-intentioned but staggeringly ignorant and egotistical rich idiots are not journalism's salvation. RIP for now VVhttps://t.co/vHbZZTe0Ss
— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) August 31, 2018
With The Village Voice shutting down, who is covering repertory cinema anymore? The LAT does it once in awhile for high profile restorations, but I honestly can't think of any outlet that regularly covers rep film like they did. This is such a loss for film culture and criticism
— Michelle Buchman (@michelledeidre) August 31, 2018
The loss of the @VillageVoice is bad news for all New Yorkers. We should all be concerned about the increasing loss of voices in our city's media landscape. The public and private sectors need to come together to address the crisis facing our #freepress. https://t.co/AO8bMZ0o0F
— Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) August 31, 2018
Long live the Village Voice: the newspaper that gave New York its cool, birthed generations of some of the best writers this city has ever known, and taught me everything I know about being a journalist here. You will be dearly missed. https://t.co/yi9FGbkQZ7
— John Surico (@JohnSurico) August 31, 2018
I went to college in NYC, spent a couple of years afterwards just screwing around. We waited eagerly for the Voice every week to check for which band was playing where. (Also did boozy dramatic readings of adult ads). This is sad. https://t.co/tciPmJh0rJ
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) August 31, 2018
When I was still a sheltered yeshiva girl, I'd go to the Village with my friend to go to thrift stores. We'd pick up free copies of the Village Voice and read them in cafes, feeling much cooler than we actually were.
— Dvora Meyers (@DvoraMeyers) August 31, 2018
This is some sad news.https://t.co/nJYuf4IPdZ
i miss 20 minutes ago, when the Village Voice still existed and Bradley Cooper wasn’t America's next great auteur.
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) August 31, 2018
Fuck. This is hard news to swallow and it is truly the end to another era. I am crestfallen. Back in 2000, when I moved here to the city from LA, I read the Village Voice to find jobs, roommates, apartments, and the personals section(before the advent of dating apps and smartphones). I loved their film and theater reviews too. I never thought this day would come as the VV was such a staple to what NYC is and sadly now, was. Change is hard peeps. RIP VV :(
ReplyDeleteThe Village Voice was my equivalent of surfing the internet before there was an internet.
ReplyDeleteWhat a loss!
ReplyDeleteI remember waiting on line at the newsstand on Sheridan Square for the truck to deliver the first bundles of the VV early Wednesday mornings. At that time, the Voice offices were in the West Village, so Sheridan Square was the first place to get it around 1 or 2 AM. Anyone looking for an apartment or job would line up to get an early copy. It was THE alternative newspaper with terrific writers like Nat Hentoff, Wayne Barrett, Jill Johnston, Robert Christgau, just to name a few.
Thanks for the memories, Village Voice.
Paper hasn't been all that for quite awhile....
ReplyDeletewonder where Musto will be heard/seen/consumed?
The Village Voice had it's day, long gone. It's hard to imagine now, but the Voice was once necessary reading for those who wanted to stay informed about our great city. And we would actually pay for it.
ReplyDeleteThe Voice was the voice of the post war baby boomer who didn't want to be their parents and sought an alternative to the American dream. The Voice challenged institutions and institutional thinking with an aggressive style of reporting that changed the relationship between the press and the establishment. It also raised the level of reporting for the News, the Post, the Mirror and the liberal press in general. And through their investigative reporting they made us a better country and firmly established the alternative American dream in political thought, gender identification, and the arts. Sad to say, the Voice died many years ago. The latest iteration from Wall Street(God Wall Stet) was a joke trading on a glorious history. This day is an act of mercy. The Voice is dead... Long live the Voice.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know where Michael Musto and Lynn Yaeger are doing brunch these days.
ReplyDeleteWe lost what was left of the old Village Voice long ago, and Gothamist hasn't been the same since some billionaire closed it down for 6 months. As long as some billionaire doesn't come around and buy EV Grieve, at least there’s one place in this city that wont be ruined by greed.
ReplyDelete