The loss of the venerated publication is a tragedy for local media, alt-weeklies, and criticism.<\/b>
\nFor 63 years, New York\u2019s most venerated alt-weekly, the Village Voice, has been an institution \u2014 not just for the city but for several generations of writers and critics whose careers were launched or inspired by the groundbreaking writing on art and popular culture found in its pages.
Now it\u2019s gone .
On the Friday before Labor Day, Village Voice staffers found out the paper was being shut down. According to Gothamist, the paper\u2019s owner, Peter Barbey, told the staff in a phone call that \u201cdue to the business realities, we\u2019re going to stop publishing Village Voice new material.\u201d Some staff members are being retained to \u201cwind things down\u201d and migrate the Voice\u2019s archive online. The rest have been let go.
Barbey, a member of one of the wealthiest families in America, is currently the CEO and president of Reading Eagle Company, which also owns the Reading Eagle newspaper and the WEEU 830 AM radio station, both based in Reading, Pennsylvania. Barbey bought the paper in 2015 from Voice Media Group.
Almost exactly a year ago, on August 22,2017, the paper announced that it would cease publishing a physical printed copy, which had for decades been available from ubiquitous red distribution boxes on New York\u2019s street corners. The last printed issue of the Voice was dated September 21,2017.
But apparently the move to digital wasn\u2019t enough to save the publication .
Gothamist reported that Barbey told the staff, \u201dI bought the Village Voice to save it, this isn\u2019t exactly how I thought it was going to end up. I\u2019m still trying to save the Village Voice.\u201d According to the Columbia Journalism Review, he also indicated that selling the paper wasn\u2019t possible until this shutdown was made; why that would be case isn\u2019t clear.
This is depressing news for media observers. The Village Voice\u2019s shutdown comes on the heels of decreasing local news coverage in New York City: The Tronc-owned New York Daily News fired half its staff in July. Papers including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have drastically reduced their local coverage in the past two years, and the New York Observer ceased print publication in 2016 (though it continues to publish online).
The Village Voice often stepped up to fill the void, reporting on New York City\u2019s news with a sensibility that felt more grounded in reality and deep knowledge of the city than some of its peers. With straphangers living through an especially bad stretch in MTA service over the past couple of years, for instance, the Voice\u2019s subway coverage has been especially vital.
But it\u2019s not just New York news that\u2019s been suffering \u2014 alt-weeklies around the country have been in turmoil as well. The independent and often contrarian papers, vital launching pads for many writers, have been eulogized recently as they\u2019ve been purchased by shadowy groups of investors (though in some cases, they\u2019ve instead been purchased by folks who seem keen on supporting a mission over making money). In this case, despite Barbey\u2019s claims that he wanted to save the Village Voice, the publication appears to be the latest casualty of the challenge and expense of producing high-quality local news.
For those who care about culture and the arts \u2014 and about the critics who write about them \u2014 the loss of the Village Voice is almost unspeakable. The Voice is one of the few papers left in New York City that has consistently covered local repertory cinema, art exhibitions, music, and more with wit, craft, and consistently high-quality writing.
Throughout its storied 63-year run, it has published many of the most revered critics and writers in American letters \u2014 people like Ezra Pound, Henry Miller, Katherine Anne Porter, Nat Hentoff, James Baldwin, Colson Whitehead, Tom Stoppard, Allen Ginsberg, Lester Bangs, Jonas Mekas, Andrew Sarris, Nelson George, Jill Johnston, Robert Christgau, J. Hoberman, Manohla Dargis, and many, many others. Its current stable of staff and freelance critics are among the country\u2019s best.
For New Yorkers, losing the Village Voice means losing a vital lifeline to the city\u2019s local culture and politics. For readers outside New York, it means losing an outlet known for some of the best writing and criticism around. To say it will be missed is an understatement.<\/p>\n

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