THE VILLAGE VOICE (1955-2018)
"This is a sad day for The Village Voice and for millions of readers. The Voice has been a key element of New York City journalism and is read around the world. As the first modern alternative newspaper, it literally defined a new genre of publishing. As the Voice evolved over the years, its writers, editors, reporters, reviewers, contributors, photographers, artists and staff were united by the idea that the they spoke for and fought hard for those that believed in a better New York City and a better world. The Voice has connected multiple generations to local and national news, music, art, theater, film, politics and activism, and showed us that it’s idealism could be a way of life.
"In recent years, the Voice has been subject to the increasingly harsh economic realities facing those creating journalism and written media. Like many others in publishing, we were continually optimistic that relief was around the next corner. Where stability for our business is, we do not know yet. The only thing that is clear now is that we have not reached that destination.
- Statement from owner Peter Bareby
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"This is so sad for NYC. The paper where I got my start (and obviously where a lot of much, much more impressive people did too)." - Emma Span, Sports Illustrated
"Robert Christgau. Molly Haskell. Andrew Sarris. J. Hoberman. Jonas Mekas. Ellen Willis. Wayne Barrett. Nat Hentoff. Robert Sietsema. Jules Feiffer. Lynda Barry. Mark Stamaty." - Dana Stevens, Slate
"Even growing up in the Midwest, I saw the VILLAGE VOICE as the symbol of everything forbiddingly cool, metropolitan, and politically committed in NYC. This is a huge loss, and another example of the blandification, corporatization, and dumbification of the media landscape. Awful." - Keith Phipps, Uproxx
"I remember walking past the Village Voice offices shortly after I moved to NYC, thinking, "I will work there." Two years later, I started as an editorial assistant on the arts desk. A year after that, I published my first cover story." - Eric Sundermann, VICE
"Long live the Village Voice: the newspaper that gave New York its cool, birthed generations of some of the best writers this city has ever known, and taught me everything I know about being a journalist here. You will be dearly missed." - John Surico, NY Times, VICE
"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." - Manohla Dargis, NY Times
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"Like other papers in this class, there was a lot of filler to spread out all the ads that poured in — the luxury of a glorious business model. Yet there was always something worth reading in that paper, and finding it was part of the sport of flipping through the pages. It might have been a music review, or a theater review, or a brief capsule in the news section about some politician. Or it may have been a long-simmering investigation that changed the city.
"But there was always something. Now there’s nothing.
- Eric Wemple, Washington Post