Is the Village Voice Even Necessary Anymore?
I don't mean to pick a fight, I think. And lord knows the Village Voice has had a great history, and of course still has far more readers than does our humble operation. But the news that they're dropping Tom Tomorrow made me realize how long it's been since I bothered to pick up a copy.
When I moved to New York nine years ago, the Voice seemed like an oasis of progressive opinion in an apathetic America and a Guiliani-ized New York. But now I'm not sure it has any relevance - much less so since it was sold to the Great Homogenizer of alternative media, the New Times.
A comment at Tomorrow's petition made the point: "I don't get it. Time Out is a better entertainment publication that is the VV. Classifieds? Craigslist. If you don't have stuff like TMW, what do you have?"
That's exactly it. I'm still a fan of Wayne Barrett, and I suppose Musto is fun, but what else? Christgau is gone. Ridgeway is gone. The muckraking and community-building function that the Voice once served is now amply covered by the blogs, and if it's trying to turn into a zippy gossipy pop culture rag in reaction, well it's a pretty crowded niche there, too. So really, what's the point?
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Media | Village Voice | New York City
Wayne Barrett is all that's left.
Submitted by Barry Popik (not verified) on 6 January 2007 - 3:08am.
I enjoy Wayne Barrett, even when he writes a loopy piece about Alan Hevesi. The Voice has a little-read political blog. Sietsemi is tops on food. But there's not much else.
Blogs have completely overtaken the Village Voice. If you have a WEEKLY anywhere, you better have some pretty good, well-researched, in-depth articles. It's hard to pull off in a 24/7 blog world. The VV could be nearing the end.
Back in the day
Submitted by sidnora on 6 January 2007 - 10:06am.
it was essential reading; I'm talking about the late '60's. My interest has steadily waned over the decades, though I'm glad that others were finding it relevant as recently as 10 years ago.
Apart from Wayne Barrett, and the fact that a nice young woman I know would lose her new job should it fold, my answer to your title, sadly, is, no.
You're forgetting Tom Robbins...
Submitted by mmhirsch on 6 January 2007 - 3:26pm.
and J. Hoberman, too. They and the others mentioned are worth following. But that's it. The paper was a decent read until it went free in the '90s, and what happened is exactly what everybody said would happen: the content got degraded. And the City/State section, which consistently presented the best urban news in NY--even when NY Newsday was still around--got shrunken long before the current nabobs took possession. Why read it now? It's free. It's at my bus stop. It beats the NY Press. And the bus ride is mercifully short.
Beats the Press
Submitted by Paul Curtis on 6 January 2007 - 5:34pm.
that's true. The Press had Matt Taibbi, and in one of the most craven, gonad-less cave-ins in local media history, dumped him over his pope piece. It was definitely an edgy piece, but they got rid of their one really outstanding writer (I like Knipfield okay, but that's not enough to pick up a whole paper).
It's not content competition
Submitted by Antid Oto on 6 January 2007 - 5:21pm.
It was Craigslist that really killed the Voice. They used to get a huge chunk of their revenue from the apartment classifieds and porn ads in the back pages. All that business has migrated to Craigslist. So they've been chopping at their content for the last few years to try and cut costs, in the process making themselves less and less readable. The new owners that took over about a year ago more or less finished the process, sending a whole lot of writers out the door.
I saw that
...and couldn't help thinking the same. I don't know if people have changed, or the Voice has, but it's not what it was back in the day. Sad, really.