Village

That's what a source told Boston Phoenix media critic Mark Jurkowitz after Village Voice Media's new Executive Editor Michael Lacey met with "about 30 staffers" in New York on Feb. 1. "This industry has been afflicted by this kind of shut-in mentality," Lacey told Jurkowitz. "Are people prepared to receive the message? There were a lot of people [at that meeting] who didn't like what I said." One of them was media columnist Sydney Schanberg, who said Lacey's "language was adversarial and pugnacious. ... He played the bully. I respond terribly to bullies." Voice columnist Nat Hentoff didn't respond well either, especially when Lacey criticized one of his columns and complained about "reporting that was stenography." But Hentoff decided not to resign because he's waiting to see how Lacey treats his work. Jurkowitz also covered the recent resignation of the editorial staff at the New York Press and interpreted the "turmoil" at both papers as "a sure indicator that the alt-weekly business ... is struggling for relevance in an increasingly fragmented marketplace."

Continue ReadingAt Voice, Reaction to Lacey Runs Gamut From ‘Fear to Exhilaration’

Contrary to a Feb. 8 report in the San Francisco Bay Guardian that was linked from our Web site yesterday, AAN has learned that California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced on Feb. 6 (PDF) that his office has closed its investigation of the merger without taking any enforcement action. In addition, the Bay Guardian article was in error in stating that "the two chains were caught in 2002 in an illegal market-allocation agreement." In fact, New Times and Village Voice Media signed a consent degree without admitting guilt in that case. Lockyer's letter stated that his office "will continue to monitor" the merged company's compliance with the settlement.

To read the Bay Guardian's Letter to the Editor in response to the item above, click here.

Continue ReadingCalifornia Closes Investigation of New Times-VVM Merger

The new CEO of Village Voice Media announced Tuesday that Michael Cohen has been named publisher of the chain's flagship paper. In an e-mail message to Village Voice staffers, Larkin said that Cohen resigned his current position as publisher of Miami New Times and will take the helm at the Voice on Monday Jan. 30. Cohen, who has been in the alternative-weekly publishing business for 22 years, began his career in ad sales at the Baltimore City Paper in 1983 and moved to New York five years later to help launch the New York Press as its ad director. He returned to New York in 2000 to serve briefly as publisher of the Press; he also served stints as publisher of AAN member papers Fairfield County Weekly and Philadelphia Weekly. In a separate e-mail to the Voice staff, Judy Miszner announced that Tuesday was her last day as the paper's publisher. "I thank all of you for making these the 7 best years of my career," she wrote.

Continue ReadingJim Larkin Names New Publisher at Village Voice