One week after a partially fabricated story by Voice writer Nick Sylvester started a media furor, acting Editor-in-Chief Doug Simmons has been replaced by Senior Editor Ward Harkavy, the New York Post reports. A photograph of a note that Executive Editor Mike Lacey scrawled on a napkin is posted on the Village Voice Web site: "Doug Simmons is no longer acting editor. Ward Harkavy, long time senior editor, and Arizona Crony, is now interim editor. Call us tomorrow for next update." (Harkavy is a former New Times Inc. employee.) Lacey met with the New York Times' David Carr yesterday, but Carr told the Post, "we had a nice conversation about the editorial opportunity at the Village Voice, but it didn't involve me editing the paper." This morning, Lacey confirmed Simmons' departure but declined to say if the Sylvester incident was a factor. Harkavy told AP that he expected Sylvester would return to the Voice after his suspension.

Continue ReadingVillage Voice Ousts Interim Editor Simmons

A recent survey of AAN papers revealed that the applications alt-weeklies are using to track circulation are as diverse as the newspapers themselves. A few papers rely on their in-house wiz for a custom-made program, but for the rest of the industry, a commercial package is the only sophisticated option. Alt-weekly circulation insiders describe their woes, successes, and dreams of better uses for the numbers.

Continue ReadingCirculation Software Makes Life Easier at Alt-Weeklies

The Village Voice removed this week's cover piece, "Do You Wanna Kiss Me?" from its Web site after learning that Senior Associate Editor Nick Sylvester invented a scene in the story. According to an editor's note posted on the Web site, Sylvester lied about meeting three TV writers in a bar to discuss pickup techniques. Sylvester admits that the "scene was a composite of specific anecdotes" and says he "deeply regret[s] this misinformation." The Voice has begun a review of the entire story.

Continue ReadingVoice Writer Suspended for Fabrications

Michael Musto, who writes the "La Dolce Musto" column in the Voice, says his secret to staying relevant is keeping his distance from celebs, in this Toronto Star profile. Musto also claims that he "pioneered snark" and says that the proliferation of celebrity blogs and Web sites "forces me to go wilder and aim lower and provide something the Internet can't." Apparently, the decline in standards hasn't hurt Musto's reputation. Says here that "(h)e's been described rapturously as 'one of the wittiest stylists in the English language, master of the Oscar Wildesque segue.'"

Continue ReadingVoice Columnist Dishes on Celebrity Journalism

Hunter College in New York City has selected Wayne Barrett to receive the inaugural Jack Newfield Visiting Professorship in Journalism. Newfield was an investigative journalist at the Voice from 1964 to 1988; he died of cancer in 2004. On the school's Web site, Hunter President Jennifer J. Rabb said, "As Jack Newfield's colleague at the Voice and an investigative journalist in his own right, Wayne Barrett brings a unique insight to Hunter students. They will learn from one of New York's best reporters how journalists can continually rediscover, and tell the story, of the drama of a great city remaking itself again and again."

Continue ReadingVillage Voice Senior Editor Awarded Newfield Professorship