Yearly Archives: 2006

New York magazine gives a nod to Village Voice art critic Jerry Saltz on its list of "The Influentials," defined as "the people whose ideas, power, and sheer will are changing New York." Saltz, who was also a 2006 Pulitzer finalist, "is far more than a booster; he is unafraid to burst bubbles, define broad trends, or take the art world to task when it's called for," the magazine says.

"When the shake-up of this venerable institution ends, who among the villagers will still have a voice? Who, that is, other than Michael Lacey, the new chief?" asks Bob Garfield, whose sources mostly agree that the venerable alt-weekly needed an overhaul. "Too predictable," says the New York Times' David Carr; "too intellectual," claims Los Angeles Magazine's RJ Smith; too much "attitudinizing," says the only man with a vote, who wants his new employees to "pick up the phone" and begin "breaking stories." Garfield apparently agrees with that downbeat assessment -- the Voice has picked up a "pallor of decrepitude," he says -- but after itemizing the competitive issues that alt-weeklies face, he suggests that, "Maybe this is no time (for the paper) to be fiddling with the editorial product and instead figuring out how to reach its core audience in the digital age."