May 31, 2006
For immediate release
Village Voice Media is pleased to announce that Erik Wemple will become the new editor-in-chief of the Village Voice. He will take the helm in New York City on July 24.
Wemple has served as lead editor of the Washington City Paper since January 2002. During that period, the D.C. paper aimed to uphold its great feature-writing and political reporting traditions while developing new directions for an expanding urban readership.
“Erik Wemple stood out in a process that went on for months as I reviewed applications and interviewed journalists from major American dailies, national magazines and alt-weeklies,” said Michael Lacey, executive editor for Village Voice Media. “Wemple’s savvy and grit are reflected in the newspaper he edits. I’m looking forward to his leadership, as well as the speculation and second-guessing sure to commence with this announcement. Readers may rest easy because, unlike Mother Jones, we are not seeking charitable donations to underwrite the salary of our latest staffer.”
Under Wemple’s guidance, the City Paper in June 2002 published “The Others,” a penetrating look at the bizarre events leading up to the murder of Virginia scientist Robert Schwartz. “Boss Hogtie,” a January 2003 investigation, examined the D.C. police department’s improper arrests of hundreds of peaceful protesters. “Off Target,” a news-breaking feature in May 2003, focused on the Jayson Blair scandal at the New York Times. And, on the offbeat front, the paper in May 2004 published “Lunatic Fringe,” a tale of the mysteries behind a lace-maker who resided at a D.C. mental hospital. All of those stories earned either first place or a nomination in the AltWeekly Awards, sponsored by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
At City Paper, Wemple pushed for more reporting on the local arts scene, launching the column “Show & Tell” to take an in-depth look at the business of entertainment in Washington. He also introduced a number of formatted features in the news section that give the paper a magazine feel. The paper won the 2003-04 George Jean Nathan Award, the highest honor in American theater criticism, as well as the 2005 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award for food-related newspaper column.
“I’ve always admired the local focus and the quality writing of the Washington City Paper, and the line of great editors that have made it one of the top metropolitan weeklies in the country,” said Village Voice publisher Michael Cohen. “I’m eager to work with Erik to make the Voice even more of a player in New York City than it is today.” Before becoming City Paper’s editor, Wemple held a number of jobs in journalism, including head of the Washington bureau of Inside.com, a media news website, and CableWorld magazine. He also served two-year stints as City Paper’s senior editor and as its political columnist.
Wemple, who grew up and attended college in upstate New York, will move to New York City with his wife, Stephanie Mencimer, and their two children. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College and a master’s from Georgetown University.
The Village Voice was founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and famed novelist Norman Mailer, and quickly established a reputation for no-holds-barred reporting and criticism. The paper has received three Pulitzer Prizes, as well as Front Page Awards and Deadline Club Awards, and its website has twice been recognized as one of the nation’s premier online sites, receiving the National Press Foundation’s Online Journalism Award and the Editor and Publisher Eppy Award for best U.S. weekly newspaper online.
Village Voice Media, which operated its New York City flagship and five other papers, merged in January 2006 with the eleven-paper New Times Media, the country’s largest publisher of alternative weeklies and a company with a well-established track record of investigative reporting and cutting-edge cultural coverage. Most recent honors for the combined company include the naming of Village Voice art critic Jerry Saltz as a Pulitzer finalist in criticism, and an impressive showing — four winners and five finalists — in the James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards.
Village Voice Media (VVM) publishes free weekly newspapers and websites in seventeen major U.S. cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Seattle, St. Louis, Orange County, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Kansas City, Nashville, the East Bay including Oakland and Berkeley, and the Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach area. The print versions have a combined weekly circulation of 1.8 million papers and over 4.3 million readers. The Internet sites currently have in excess of 5 million unique visitors per month.
In addition, VVM operates the Ruxton Media Group, a national advertising sales agency that represents 37 weekly publications from coast to coast with audited circulations of 3.1 million weekly. VVM also owns and licenses Backpage.com, its network of free classified websites, which has a local presence in over 50 major metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada.
Contact: Michael Lacey (602) 229-8404
Erik Wemple (202) 332-2100, ext.1450
