In a blog post titled "MEMO TO FOSTER KAMER, RE: DICK JOKE," Village Voice editor Tony Ortega tells Voice blogger Foster Kamer to "stop apologizing for the damn dick joke" about Cablevision CEO James Dolan that has cost the Voice $1 million in advertising. "There's a reason I told Dolan's people to stuff it when they called to complain about your original blog post," Ortega writes. "And that's because your dick joke was spot-on, and a prime example of what we do around here."

Continue ReadingVoice Editor to Blogger: Stop Apologizing for Dolan Dick Joke

Village Voice Media Holdings' Voice Local Network has tapped Analog Analytics to provide a local coupon solution for its publications. The company's software offers interactive coupons for local online publishers and advertisers, as well as a scalable platform to integrate and optimize the performance of both traditional advertising like print with online interactive and mobile. "We are constantly seeking ways to enhance and extend local online advertising, going beyond our own sites," VVM president and COO Scott Tobias says in a release. "Interactive coupons in all media are very effective and Analog Analytics does an excellent job in providing this technology."

Continue ReadingVoice Local Network to Use Analog Analytics for Coupons

A little over a month ago, Cablevision subsidiary Independent Film Center pulled its $400/week print ad from the Voice in reaction to a blog post that included a dick joke about Cablevision CEO James Dolan. "That same post has now resulted in all Madison Square Garden Entertainment advertising being pulled from the Village Voice," Foster Kamer reports. "Furthermore, LiveNation -- one of America's biggest concert promoters -- has now pulled all of its advertising from the The Village Voice at the behest of James Dolan, whose MSG Entertainment employs the services of Live Nation/Ticketmaster in their ticketing and promotions operations. In toto, a mediocre dick joke about a media acquisition has now cost this company upwards of $1M in yearly advertising revenue."

Continue ReadingCablevision Head Pulls Even More Advertising from The Village Voice

For more than a year, a Brooklyn police officer secretly recorded his fellow officers and superiors and those tapes have now been obtained by writer Graham Rayman and published by the Village Voice. "They provide an incredible composite into the goings-on of those entrusted with the law, the ones New Yorkers don't know about, and the ones they would definitely want to," Voice blogger Foster Kamer writes. "And the results are as astounding as they are infuriating." The Washington Post's Story Lab agrees, saying the tapes and the story "[capture] a rare look inside the New York City police department. ... Taken together, the recordings provide an intimate look into a place that has been for the most part hidden from the media and the public."

Continue ReadingThe Village Voice Obtains, Publishes Secret NYPD Tapes

David Simon, whose harsh portrayal of the Baltimore Sun in The Wire caused a minor stir in media circles a few years ago, is back with a new HBO series, Treme, which also features a reporter character: Jill, a Village Voice reporter played by Danai Gurira. "We'd hope for an honest portrayal of what it's like to work at the Village Voice, and we got one," the Voice's Foster Kamer writes. The character "is first greeted at an awesome, hopping party (which we all go to, nightly) by legendary Jazz critic (and Voice alum) Stanley Crouch, and told how great a piece she wrote was. It happens. She's then greeted by another legendary cultural critic, Nelson George, and asked how the Village Voice is treating her. She replies in the ambivalent-affirmative ("Ehh. Good enough.") thus accurately conforming to Page 121, Paragraph 3, Section A of the Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC employee handbook."

Continue ReadingTreme Character Works for the Village Voice

The Association of Food Journalists (AFJ) has announced the winners in its 2010 awards competition, and four AAN members are in the mix. Miami New Times has placed in three categories -- Best Newspaper Food Feature (under 200K circ.), Best Newspaper Food Story and Best Newspaper Food Criticism. The Village Voice staff is competing in the Best Newspaper Food Coverage (150-250K circ.) category, while the L.A. Weekly staff is in the running for Best Food Blog. And the Mountain Xpress' Hanna Raskin, who recently decamped to the Dallas Observer, is competing in the Best Newspaper Food Column category. The placement of the winners will be announced at AFJ's annual conference in September.

Continue ReadingFour Alt-Weeklies Named Finalists in Food Journalism Awards

In a note to readers published last week in Phoenix New Times, Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey and CEO Jim Larkin say that VVM is underwriting the cost of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona's forthcoming litigation against the state's new and controversial immigration law, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant. "Arizona has chosen to insist that all law enforcement in the state adopt the police-state tactics of infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio," write Lacey and Larkin, who both have been the target of Arpaio, before inviting New Times readers to chip in to help the ACLU fight the new law. "We would like to extend an invitation to you, our readers, to join in this struggle against the cracker policies of Arizona politicians and certain elements within law enforcement typified by Sheriff Arapio."

Continue ReadingVVM Underwriting Legal Challenge to Arizona Immigration Law

The Village Voice's Elizabeth Dwoskin, Jaclyn Galluci of the Long Island Press, and Chris Vogel of the Houston Press are among the finalists for this year's Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, an all-media, general reporting contest that awards three $10,000 prizes for Local, National, and International Reporting to journalists under the age of 35. It's Dwoskin's second nomination in a row; last year's local reporting winner was Phoenix New Times' John Dickerson. Winners will be announced on June 2.

Continue ReadingThree Young Alt-Weekly Staffers Finalists for 2009 Livingston Awards

The former Village Voice art director (she left in January of this year) is the latest alt-weekly designer spotlighted by Robert Newman on the Society of Publication Designers blog. "She used bold photography and strong original illustration to give the covers a unique sense of power and imagination," he writes, adding that the look she cultivated was informed by "low budgets, [a] quick production schedule, and [her] own street smart design." Simones tells Newman her influences include NYC street art and Village Voice Media design director Michael Shavalier. "His work in the past 10 years for numerous alt-weeklies across the country blew my mind! I feel our craft in editorial design is one of a kind, and he set the bar," she says. "I used to spend hours just looking at his past covers for ideas."

Continue ReadingNewman: Ivylise Simones’ Voice Covers Were ‘Brash, Graphic, Funny, Provocative, and Immediate’