Brian Calle, the chief executive of Street Media, the owner of LA Weekly, said on Tuesday that he had acquired the publication from its publisher, Peter D. Barbey. "I think a lot of people will be hungry for this and I'm superoptimistic," Mr. Calle said in an interview.
He added that he planned to restart The Voice's website in January and would publish a "comeback" print edition early next year, with quarterly print issues to follow. On Tuesday he hired Bob Baker, a former Voice editor, as a senior editor and content coordinator. Mr. Calle said he wanted to bring back more former staff members who know the paper's tone. He has not yet named an editor in chief.The Voice website, which is still active repurposing its archived articles, ceased publishing new content in August 2018 ... this after the final print edition in September 2017 — a 176-page commemorative issue with Bob Dylan on the cover.
Nothing like the most vaunted counter-cultural publication in America bought by the former head of the Claremont Institute, the West Coast's preeminent right wing ghoul factory.
— Otto Von Biz Markie (@Passionweiss) December 22, 2020
Brian Calle makes Jared Kushner look like George Plimpton. This is a laughable disgrace. https://t.co/hSGRlxU1jD
Is this a better or worse fate than staying dead https://t.co/yTpPDIJHro
— Kris Vire (@krisvire) December 22, 2020
I am uncertain about the savvy of anybody who lived through the new LA Weekly experience and thinks, "hell yeah, more of this" https://t.co/erVQLHo1ND
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) December 22, 2020
The good news is, the Village Voice is coming back. The bad news is, it’s a branded drop-ship influencer real-estate trust. https://t.co/Pu9Dq1riMO
— Ian Bogost (@ibogost) December 23, 2020
"The Village Voice Rises From the Dead" is an odd headline. Seems more like "Right-Wing Grifter Digs Up Decaying Skeleton of the Village Voice and Parades It Around, Pretending It's Alive."https://t.co/FOc4L7xJrK
— Zach Schonfeld (@zzzzaaaacccchhh) December 23, 2020
Hey, NYC! Former New Yorker now living in Los Angeles who's here to tell you: this news SUCKS. LA Weekly is a zombie publication now. The whole former staff formed @theLAndmagazine and it's way better. Don't get on board with this version of the Voice. https://t.co/8B3zGGCc6P
— Chris Conroy (@ConroyForReal) December 22, 2020
it would be great if the Village Voice could be revived with a nice owner who really cared about it, but... https://t.co/QVyXs13qew pic.twitter.com/kTALaRpO9v
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) December 22, 2020
If Calle's relaunch looks anything like what he did to LA Weekly, it will surely involve unmarked spon-con, pay-to-play coverage of the company's unnamed investors, and a complete desecration of everything the paper once stood for. RIP Village Voice. https://t.co/6JwRmH3RVJ
— Jennifer Swann (@jenn_swann) December 22, 2020
Anyone celebrating the revival of the Village Voice hasn’t done the reading of what its new owner did to the LA Weekly. https://t.co/cJTxl6tgyChttps://t.co/q5BeMTYHLphttps://t.co/qpSoch0Db9
— Monica Castillo (@mcastimovies) December 23, 2020
Both cities & their readers deserve better. https://t.co/H8b18NzPmA
I just... Well, I really wish this article would have included literally anything about Calle's unethical mismanagement of LA Weekly. I cannot imagine a worse future for The Village Voice. https://t.co/5guIblmWiJ
— April Wolfe (@AWolfeful) December 22, 2020
Headline accurate in the sense that things that rise from the dead are zombies and should be avoided at all costs unless you can lop off their heads. https://t.co/gRMhOSnYyf
— Scott Tobias (@scott_tobias) December 22, 2020
The Village Voice Rises From the Dead, says the headline. https://t.co/wCBlwNzVjC Well, it has a new owner who says he is bringing it back. There is not a word about the business model said owner has in mind, the first question I would ask. A storied past is not a business model.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) December 22, 2020
This quote from @mshalhoup about how the quality of @LAWeekly's content plummeted under Calle is the diplomatic understatement of the year.
— Elina Shatkin (@elinashatkin) December 22, 2020
Hey NY, hope you like stories about weed and crappy bro-step bands. pic.twitter.com/YE9mKu2jae
Previously on EVG:A conspiracy theory that I believe without any real evidence is that this cretinous dingus is a cutout for much richer people who want to defile critical alternative media outlets both on principle and "for yuks." https://t.co/mjDGlYLfY5
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) December 22, 2020
bro-step still exists?
ReplyDeleteSigh.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of what happened to AM New York - always a quirky little read with columns by, about and for actual New Yorkers which other actual New Yorkers could write in and comment about, and Metro NY, bought by Schneps Media, which combined into one, and which is now about as exciting, New York-centric and worth reading as a roll of toilet paper. They also bought The Villager, axed Lincoln Anderson, its longtime editor and writer, ditched most of the rest of the long-time staff, and brought in bunch of poorly - if at all - paid generic, personality-free robots who know nothing about what they are covering.
ReplyDeleteWow. Well this is disheartening.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, cool picture up top!
lost interest in the V Voice after watching the documentary I am Jane Do
ReplyDeleteSo basically, the Village Voice is still dead.
ReplyDeleteexactly
DeleteI believe the Latin term for this type of media manipulation is "shitshow." Bring back Town & Village!
ReplyDeleteThe Villager is now kind of a right wing rag. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've heard of Bro-Step. Is that a derivation of Crotch-Gaze?
ReplyDeleteNext we can expect some Proud Boi member to revive the EV Other.
Without the Voice, civil society (defined as what people do together, independent of business and politics) in New York would have been buried forty years ago instead of thirty. We were able to lay to rest the bipartisan attempt to bury this city under incinerator ash with a single cover story in November 1991.
ReplyDeleteNotably 'civil society' is a term largely unknown to most Americans. It means: if one doesn't do anything to protect his culture, he joins a terminal chorus of victims. Standing on one's hind legs is actually quite good for the immune system. Try it some time.