An unnamed industry source tells the Weekly's Steve Volk that a group led by Richard L. Connor is among the bidders for his paper. Connor, the editor and publisher of the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., led a group of investors last year in the purchase of that paper from the McClatchy Co. "Another company frequently mentioned among industry insiders as a potential bidder is Times-Shamrock Communications," Volk says, but the company says it has "no involvement." Times-Shamrock owns AAN members Baltimore City Paper, Detroit's Metro Times, Orlando Weekly, and the San Antonio Current, among other publications. Village Voice Media and Philadelphia Media Holdings have also been named as companies interested in purchasing the Weekly.

Continue ReadingMore Potential Buyers for Philadelphia Weekly Named

Jerry Saltz, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for criticism, will start at New York in April, the New York Observer reports. Saltz joined the Voice in 1998. "Jerry is one of the city's most well-respected critics," Voice editor Tony Ortega says in a staff memo. "I know he'll continue doing outstanding work for his new editors just as he's done at the Voice for so long."

Continue ReadingLongtime Village Voice Art Critic Leaves for New York Magazine

Unnamed "insiders" tell the Philadelphia Inquirer that Review Publishing LP, the Weekly's parent company, wants to package its three other publications with the alt-weekly in a sale, but VVM only wants the Weekly. Rumors of the paper's sale first appeared last week, and it has been reported that Philadelphia Media Holdings, the parent company of the city's two dailies, is also interested.

Continue ReadingVillage Voice Media ‘Most Active Prospect’ in Philadelphia Weekly Sale

On Monday, Brian Parks will take over the post vacated when Joy Press recently left for Salon. During his previous 13-year tenure with the alt-weekly, Parks was a copy editor, copy chief and senior editor. He left in 2003 to work on his playwriting career. More recently, Parks has helped the Voice by providing "backup editing for various parts of the paper," editor Tony Ortega says in a staff memo.

Continue ReadingFormer Staffer Returns to Voice as Arts & Culture Editor

Maggie Shnayerson began her tenure at the Voice in January, long after media coverage of the alt-weekly had soured. The Dartmouth grad "has handled the less-than-placid situation with an aplomb that belies the fact that she is only 25," PR Web says. She originally wanted to be a reporter, but took a communications position at the New York Sun in 2003, which eventually led her to the Voice. Shnayerson seems unphased by the incessantly negative coverage of the post-merger Voice. "You're doing something right if people are shooting at you," she says.

Continue ReadingVillage Voice’s Communications Director Deals with Turbulence

Felix Gillette is leaving the Voice to report on media for the salmon-colored broadsheet tabloid, according to an internal e-mail leaked to Gawker. Gillette, who also previously served as a staff writer for the Washington City Paper, joins a procession of young writers with alt-weekly experience who have been hired to do media reporting for the Observer. Other hires include Tom Scocca and Sridhar Pappu. CORRECTION: The New York Observer has not been a "salmon-colored broadsheet" since Feb. 14, when it switched to a tabloid format.

Continue ReadingVillage Voice Staff Writer Heads to New York Observer

In a conversation with the New York Times' David Carr, Village Voice Media's executive editor addresses the editorial merry-go-round at the chain's flagship paper. "We didn't expect things to happen overnight," Lacey says. He also tells Carr that a move to New York might be in the cards once his kids leave for college. "I'm not going to edit the paper hands-on," he says, "but I will be close enough to make whoever is editing the paper more miserable than they already are."

Continue ReadingVVM’s Michael Lacey: ‘We Didn’t Expect Things to Go Smoothly’

"My job as editor in chief of The Village Voice was not all spent putting out the newspaper, but also keeping people happy thousands of miles away," Blum tells the New York Observer. Blum says he received frequent calls and e-mails from VVM headquarters about running the paper. An unnamed Voice staffer tells the Observer it wasn't clear the j-school adjunct was "comfortable in the editor role," noting he was more at ease with recent hires from Columbia Univ. than with longtime Voice staffers.

Continue ReadingDavid Blum Says He Never Had VVM’s Confidence as Voice Editor