Kathryn Drury had about 40 Christmas gifts to ship. Procrastinating until the bitter end, she was forced to wrap all the presents in a rush one evening. When she ran out of traditional holiday paper, she improvised with a stack of old newspapers. It wasn't until the next day, after the gifts were mailed, that it dawned on Drury that her ersatz wrapping paper was the Village Voice, home to "pages and pages of personal ads, including gay porn, leather, punishment, phone sex and escort services," Drury tells The Burlington Free Press. "I had just sent boxes of presents to my husband's very Catholic family adorned with naked ladies in string bikinis and muscular, well-oiled men in jock straps."

Continue ReadingVermont Woman Experiences Village Voice Holiday Mishap

According to Cleveland's The Plain Dealer, Attorney General Jim Petro is looking for potential antitrust violations that would result from the merger. The paper quotes a senior attorney with Petro's office who said the deal "raises new concerns that combining these two publishing companies would eliminate or restrain competition between them in some markets where they operate rival newsweeklies with overlapping advertising and news coverage." (Ed.: VVM and New Times no longer operate "rival newsweeklies" in the same market.) The attorney was commenting in response to a letter complaining about the merger written by Terry Smith, the editor of AAN-member paper The Athens News.

Continue ReadingOhio ‘Studying’ Village Voice-New Times Merger

Los Angeles Times staff writer Scott Martelle describes the fears and hopes for L.A. Weekly's role in the New Times-controlled Village Voice Media. He details the turbulent recent history of alt-weeklies in Los Angeles and speaks to several notable Angelenos. Local pol Jackie Goldberg, "a frequent target of New Times LA columnists" during New Times' previous residency in the city, says: "They were not just a gadfly, they were an assault vehicle." Martelle also speaks to a few current L.A. Weekly staff members, including editor Laurie Ochoa, and addresses speculation that Phoenix New Times editor Rick Barrs will replace her. (Barrs says that he hasn't been asked, but adds that he would "have mixed emotions about it.")

Continue ReadingLos Angeles Ponders the Future of L.A. Weekly

In its December newsletter, the Alternative Weekly Network announced that "each of the five [Village Voice Media] markets already boasts existing or new publications locked up and ready to include on AWN sales presentations." The new publications include Minneapolis' The Rake, New York's L Magazine, and Nashville's Gannett-owned All The Rage. In addition, AWN hopes to land Seattle's The Stranger, which is currently a Ruxton Media Group paper.

Continue ReadingAWN Plugs Holes in VVM Markets