(MediaBuyerPlanner) Tuesday, music editor Chuck Eddy was fired from The Village Voice, making him the 17th employee to leave the paper – either by termination or resignation – since Village Voice Media – then named New Times – took control following a $400 million merger in November, writes The New York Observer. Also, the Voice’s Robert Christgau recently discontinued his podcast, certain that he was next to be fired from the paper, writes the Gawker.
Michael Lacey, executive editor for Village Voice Media, heads up the organizational overhaul. He said that the changes would create space for more magazine-style reported content. The Village Voice’s current commentary practices have no place in the New Times regime, according to Lacey.
“I want our writers to start reporting,” said Lacey. “One of the things that happened with the internet and blogging is that it made simple punditry in newsprint irrelevant. It’s no longer timely.”
Lacey’s new strategy for the Voice may not be in tune with the new generation of readers who get their classifieds from Craigslist and their political commentary from The Daily Show. Lacey has also made the New York-based newspaper more locally focused.
“What the new owners haven’t grasped yet,” staff writer Tom Robbins said, “is that New Yorkers care more about what’s going on in the Bush administration than they do what’s going on in the Bloomberg administration.”
