Media

New York’s iconic Village Voice folds after more than 60 years

by Joe Concha - 08/31/18 5:01 PM ET

The Village Voice, a New York journalism staple and the country’s first alternative newspaper, announced Friday it will no longer continue to publish stories after more than 60 years.

“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,” said the Voice’s owner, Peter Barbey, in a statement. “As the first modern alternative newspaper, it literally defined a new genre of publishing.”

“Although the Voice will not continue publishing, we are dedicated to ensuring that its legacy will endure to inspire more generations of readers and writers to give even more speed to those same goals,” Barbey added. “We have begun working to ensure that the enormous print archive of The Village Voice is made digitally accessible.

{mosads} The Village Voice, co-founded by legendary novelist Norman Mailer, was launched in 1955.

The paper captured journalism’s top honors, including three Pulitzer Prizes, a National Press Association Award and Polk Award.

The Voice’s demise underscores the challenges for the local newspaper industry as more convenient and inexpensive or free digital options are readily available for consumers on their phones and computers.

In July, a Pew Research Center analysis found that a majority of the country’s largest newspapers in the United States have laid off employees since January 2017.

That study found that 56 percent of newspapers nationwide with circulations of 250,000 had experienced layoffs during a 16-month period ending in April.

Pew also found that 36 of the 110 daily newspapers in its analysis experienced layoffs between January 2017 and April.

“Of the 110 daily newspapers in the analysis, 40 — or 36 percent — were found to have gone through publicly reported layoffs during the 16-month study period, with at least 12 experiencing more than one round of layoffs,” reads the Pew study.

“It is possible that even more occurred but remained under the radar of the search methods employed in this analysis,” it adds.