Village Voice Media announced this afternoon that Erik Wemple (pictured) had "changed his mind" and decided to remain in his current position as editor of the Washington City Paper: "Although Wemple accepted the job of editor-in-chief of the historic Voice -- even introducing himself to the staff -- subsequent discussions revealed disagreements over newsroom management," VVM explained. Executive Editor Mike Lacey said Wemple's reservations were "not unreasonable." Wemple released his own statement, saying that he continues "to believe that the people at Village Voice Media are committed to a great editorial product, as evidenced by the great newspapers that they publish across the country."
"Given The Voice's devotion to the New York political and cultural scene, Mr. Wemple is an unorthodox choice," writes Motoko Rich of the New York Times, who notes that the Washington City Paper editor-in-chief has spent his entire career in the capital. "(New York) is a huge place I know very little about, and it's important for me to be very upfront about that," Wemple admits. Nevertheless, he isn't shy about criticizing the work of his future employees: "There's not enough evidence that people are thinking about innovative and fun ways to craft and present journalism," he claims. "(I)t just doesn't seem like the staff has enough fun producing a newspaper." The Schenectady, N.Y. native, who is scheduled to start his new job in July, also tells the Times that he plans to bring a non-ideological approach to news coverage at the Voice.
"It’s not all that surprising that the Washingtonian is a really white magazine," writes the City Paper's Huan Hsu, scolding his employer in a sidebar to its 2,900-word demolition of the upscale city mag's lily-white staff and hypocrisy on diversity issues. "It would seem a much bigger problem for the City Paper, which purports to write about a predominately black city, yet is produced by a bunch of young white folks who live in Northwest D.C. Our urban cred is just as contrived as the Washingtonian’s class." (CP's Washingtonian story can be found here; scroll down for Hsu's sidebar.) "It wasn't always this way," according to Hsu, a Chinese-American who grew up in Utah and says he spent most of his "childhood aping the mannerisms of Mormons, not Chinese people." Former Editor in Chief David Carr established a minority fellowship that "wasn't just window dressing," he says, and the paper's "high-water mark (in edit-staff diversity) came in 2001, during Howard Witt’s tenure, when there were three black female editorial staffers and two black female interns." The paper's last minority fellow departed in 2001, and current Editor in Chief Erik Wemple accepts the blame: “It’s clearly my fault that we don’t have more minority representation on staff,” he tells Hsu.
Interviewed by the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk, Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple says the reports of his profession's death are greatly exaggerated. "I just am not buying into this journalistic apocalypse," he says. He thinks a lot of papers, including the one he edits, serve their communities well. Turning a critical eye on alt-weeklies, Wemple cites predictability as the root of "whatever malaise might exist" in the industry. "Alt-weeklies do descend from a certain tradition where it's no surprise that the editorial is slamming Bush or supporting Kerry or Nader," he says.
Nearly two decades ago, Bradley Zeve bought a failing Monterey County tourist paper called Coasting and gradually transformed it into what is now Monterey County Weekly, reports Ruth Hammond. Celebrating its 16th anniversary this year, the paper owes its longevity to Zeve's approach: Plan carefully, know your audience, and be prepared to weather disasters. The result is a paper that claims the second-highest household penetration -- around 30 percent -- among papers in the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. "By having a huge household penetration, we have a lot of influence," says Zeve.
