The Western Publishing Association held its banquet on Friday and announced the winners for its annual Maggie Awards, which go to work deemed "The Best in the West." With all five finalists in the overall Tabloids/Consumer category being Village Voice Media papers, we knew an alt-weekly would win, but which would it be? OC Weekly ended up taking home the first-place prize in that category, and the Houston Press finished first for Best Public Service Series or Article/Trade & Consumer for staff writer Chris Vogel's December 2009 story on toxic polluters and lax enforcement at the Houston Ship Channel.

Continue ReadingOC Weekly & Houston Press Win Maggie Awards

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

On April 28, the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) filed a legal complaint against Los Angeles after the council refused to "cure and correct" an inadequately noticed Feb. 18 agenda item that called for 4,000 city workers and positions to be cut. This complaint follows a letter sent by Random Lengths News publisher James Preston Allen to City Council president Garcetti and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich protesting what his paper believes to be a violation of the Brown Act. After Garcetti and Trutanich failed to respond, Allen contacted CFAC, which decided to file suit.

Continue ReadingAfter Alt-Weekly’s Letter, First Amendment Group Sues L.A.

Phoenix Media/Communications Group, which owns the Boston, Portland and Providence Phoenix papers, has let ten employees go. The layoffs include CFO/COO Richard Gallagher; corporate controller Michael Notkin and assistant corporate controller Chris Crandall. The Weekly Dig broke the news of the changes yesterday when it published a staff memo sent by Phoenix Media president Bradley Mindich, which says Mindich will take over some of Gallagher's duties, while Mike Fuller will take on the interim CFO/COO role as they search for a replacement. "This is the sort of strategic reshuffle that prudent companies engage in to stay on top in demanding markets," Phoenix executive editor Peter Kadzis says in a statement released last night. His comments are echoed by Mindich, who tells AAN News in an email that Phoenix Media is focused on "performance across the board" and "ensuring we have the best of the best here to continue to execute our multi-platform strategy." MORE from the Boston Herald.

Continue ReadingPhoenix Media Lays Off 10, Including Some Top Employees

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

As we noted two days ago, the local branch of the Church of Scientology was in talks to buy the building that Creative Loafing recently settled into in Tampa's Ybor Square area. This morning CL's David Warner is reporting that the building was indeed sold to the church, per a letter sent last night to CL's CFO.

Continue ReadingIt’s Official: Scientologists are Creative Loafing (Tampa)’s New Landlords