Three-Year Old Paper Closed Days After Its Sale to New Owners.

The Long Island Voice, a spin-off of the Village Voice, deep-sixed only two days after its parent company’s other six papers were sold.

On January 11, the Stern Publishing Group was sold to a group of investors led by Stern President David Schneiderman and private money management firm Weiss, Peck & Greer.

The Long Island Voice was not included in the sale. A source close to the deal says that Stern made the decision to close the paper after the new owners declined to buy it.

Schneiderman told the New York Times that the paper hadn’t met his original expectations. “The mistake we made originally was to believe that Long Island was separate enough from New York City to support a separate newspaper like ours,” he said.

According to Judy Miszner, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at the Village Voice, the announcement to close the Long Island Voice was a disappointment for everyone involved with the company. “The decision was made very quickly after the sale of the company was finalized. January 6 was the [employees’] last day, and the last publication of the paper was [the last week of 1999].” Miszner said “a few” of the twenty former Long Island Voice employees have been offered positions at the Village Voice. “I’m confident that the others should do well,” she said. “They are very talented, so I’m very hopeful that they will find employment soon.”

Andrea Stern, the daughter of former Stern Publishing owner, Leonard Stern, left her position as Publisher of the Long Island Voice in May 1999 to take a position as Creative Marketing Director at the Village Voice.

Dave Parker replaced her as Publisher.