“Today is kind of a sucky day,” Village Voice owner Peter Barbey told newspaper staff in a phone call Friday. “Due to, basically, business realities, we’re going to stop publishing Village Voice new material.”
“I bought the Village Voice to save it; this isn’t exactly how I thought it was going to end up. I’m still trying to save the Village Voice,” said owner Barbey, who bought the paper in 2015.
Gothamist first reported the sad news that New York’s once-great indie newspaper is shutting down. 63 years after it was co-founded by the late Norman Mailer. They’d stopped printing a paper version about a year ago.
Barbey said half the staff (15 to 20 people) will “wind things down,” and work on a project to archive the Voice’s material online.
Everyone else at the organization lost their job today.
From Gothamist:
The Voice, founded as an alternative weekly newspaper in 1955, has had a number of previous owners, including New York magazine, Rupert Murdoch, Leonard Stern, and New Times (later Village Voice) Media.
Barbey also seemed to indicate that he may have been thinking about selling the Voice for some time.
“I’ve been having conversations with other entities for months now,” Barbey said in the Friday meeting. “This is something we have to do—for some of them this is something we’d have to do before they could talk to us any further.”
Barbey has issued a statement, and you can read it here.
[Photo: Village Voice newspaper boxes on a sidewalk in 2013 (Mark Lennihan/Shutterstock)
Friend just turned in his news piece, was told by his editor there was good news: He's the journalist with the last news story to appear in the Voice. That's also, the editor said, the bad news.
— Valerie Vande Panne (@asktheduchess) August 31, 2018
At the bottom of Gothamist's article about the Village Voice being shut down by the paper's most recent owner is a note reminding readers that Gothamist is now part of WNYC — since Gothamist's last owner shut the site (and DNAinfo) down last year! https://t.co/X9secJcQT5 pic.twitter.com/3PSxZmekXs
— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) August 31, 2018
Peter Barbey should sell the Village Voice to its writers and editors so we can run it as a crowdfunded workers' collective
— stop buying news outlets and killing them (@chick_in_kiev) August 31, 2018
How the Village Voice—which ceased editorial operations today—changed journalism. https://t.co/t3ZTV7bkm8
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 31, 2018
This is a tragedy, and it hurts my heart. This is where I started my professional writing life and where I met brilliant writers – and many friends – too numerous to mention. The Village Voice ends editorial production, lays off half of staff https://t.co/dglQHotfKk via @cjr
— Manohla Dargis (@ManohlaDargis) August 31, 2018
The Rich Rube Who Came to New York, Lied to My Face, Bought a $26 Million Penthouse and Killed the Voice https://t.co/HQkhSTn8q6
— Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) August 31, 2018
The owner killing the @villagevoice lives in a $26M apartment above where St. Vincent's once stood. https://t.co/7OhUzxOmHe
— Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) August 31, 2018
The Village Voice is the only place I've ever wanted to work, thanks to these names and so many more. It's been an honor every week, even the dark ones. And, hey, @szacharek was a goddamn Pulitzer finalist for her Voice work in 2015! https://t.co/p5nIDO2hiY
— Alan Scherstuhl (@studiesincrap) August 31, 2018
First apt – Village Voice; first idea what investigative journalism was – Village Voice; first sense of city corruption and why it mattered – Village Voice; 1st media coverage addiction – Village Voice; Desperately Seeking Susan– Village Voice, how to live in NYC, Village Voice. https://t.co/8v7PrQeDTB
— jimrutenberg (@jimrutenberg) August 31, 2018
This is the news editor for the Village Voice, which is apparently shutting down for good. The end of several eras. https://t.co/G2tHJx2ITk
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) August 31, 2018
the village voice meant so much to so many people. and writing 20 columns there changed my life. @DavidSwansonNYC is one of the best editors in the entire world: thoughtful, talented, smart, empathetic. everyone at VV was kind to me when no one else was. this is crushing.
— stop buying news outlets and killing them (@chick_in_kiev) August 31, 2018
It’s hard to even imagine New York without the Village Voice
— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) August 31, 2018