The Village Voice Is Closing Down, But Perhaps Not for Good
The Village Voice, the longtime New York City alternative weekly founded in 1955, has recently announced that it’ll no longer be publishing any new content. News of The Village Voice closing has prompted its openly gay gossip columnist to issue a public hope that it will continue publishing under a new owner.
The publication’s owner Peter Barbey reportedly told his 15- to 20-person staff that the publication will no longer be posting any new stories as of today. “Due to, basically, business realities,” Barbey told his staff, “we’re going to stop publishing Village Voice new material.”
Barbey said a small staff will work towards archiving all of the publication’s online content but the rest of the staff was immediately let go.
Barbey reportedly told the staff, “I bought the The Village Voice to save it, this isn’t exactly how I though it was going to end up. I’m still trying to save The Village Voice. You had amazing grit, to remain professional in doing what you’re doing and hanging in there to the end.”
Barbey also said he’s been having conversations for months with entities that might want to purchase the publication, but added, “this is something we’d have to do before they could talk to us any further.”
The owner of the Village Voice confirms the newspaper will cease publishing new stories: "This is a sad day for The Village Voice and for millions of readers." pic.twitter.com/SRDUv8S8uS
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 31, 2018
Barbey also released a formal statement on Twitter (above) in which he called today a sad day, adding “The Voice has connected multiple generations to local and national news, music, art, theater, film, politics and activism, and showed us that its idealism could be a way of life.”
On Twitter, longtime openly gay Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto wrote, “I was happy to keep writing for the site, including my recent Aretha Franklin obit, but the owner has announced there will be no new content. I hope it gets sold and stays alive.”
