The announcement yesterday about the Village Voice and New Times merger was interesting. All concerned parties–that is Mike Lacey, Jim Larkin, and David Schneiderman–are awfully defensive about charges of “selling out,” but then they’ve been hearing that for years, so their protests have always landed on my ear just a touch too loudly.
I personally don’t doubt that all the papers in the new stable will continue to do what they’ve been doing for a while, even after the merger is approved. (Fans of local, independent, lefty alternative papers may be surprised to find themselves rooting for the Federal Trade Commission on this one, in hopes that they’ll nix the deal. But that would be terrible; it would be little else than confirmation of the Man’s bias against the lefty press. Mainstream newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, billboard companies, and concert promoters are merging all the time. If you think the FTC is worried about alt-weekly monopolies, but not any other type of media monopoly–well, you see what I’m saying.)
If the New Times people are as smart as everyone says they are, then they’ll be content to sit back and count their money– after, you know, tamping down the imminent rebellion at Cooper Square. I think the argument, enunciated by Lacey (who has never lacked for a full voice), that this was “to make the papers stronger” is, I think, a little disingenuous and revealing at the same time. It’s clear that he sees this as a personal triumph, and it’s also clear that he personally doesn’t need the money. On the other hand, Village Voice has not been financially robust ever since the investment group was cobbled together to purchase the company from Leonard Stern. Official reports say that “no money changed hands,” whereas early leaks suggested that David Schneiderman would receive a seven figure bonus for forging the deal. Anyway, I’ll take their word for it, and accept the implication that New Times is in a position to strengthen the crumbling footings of Village Voice Media–also recognizing that “Village Voice” is undoubtedly the stronger, hipper brand.
If either of these chains were more concerned about making bank than doing good work, they might have made some radical adjustments a long time ago. For example, with the rise of the internet and the temptation modern alt weeklies have felt to write a substantial portion of their content to the national and international opinion scrum, you could argue that there is overwhelming duplication of effort across all markets. Throw in the regular critical coverage of movies, CDs, games, and even theater that is in national release, and it starts to look like you’re paying twelve pretty good film critics where one excellent one would do. Indeed, if you want to really guage where this merger is going, and catch them in the act of radical profiteering, watch for your local VVM alternative to become a sort of repeater tower for Musto, Hentoff, Lacey, Sinagra, Berger In many of these markets, of course, there are no strong competitors–and if City Pages one day became The Village Voice’s City Pages, and finally The Village Voice–Twin Cities edition, what would be lost, really? (A lot, of course: especially the farm system for developing great new writers. But there is not any money to be lost in the deal.) Indeed, the new directive to create the bleeding edge VilliageVoice.com may indicate the thin edge of a wedge to nationalize alternative journalism. That, by the way, was the brilliant idea behind the expansion of The Onion–which doesn’t give a toss for the individual glory of local editors, reporters, writers, or critics. The Onion qualifies in more ways than one as the first truly national alternative publication. Area Man Reads Fake News, Laughs, Still Gets Local Listings.
In the paltry details of yesterday’s announcement, to my eyes, one thing stood out like dog’s balls: It is proposed that all editors will report not to their own local publishers, but to the national commanders. Is this another stormy petrel of to a nationalized alternative press? That wouldn’t be a horrible thing, although as I’ve said before, I think the alt-press could learn one thing from mainstream newspapers, and that’s the compulsion to evolve with its readership, or cultivate a different one. The dailies have gone much too far in their chasing after vacuous, quick-read, second-person service journalism. But the alt weeklies have for twenty years coasted on the usefulness of their listings and their sex advertisments.
I’d love to see this new brain trust dedicate some energies to reinventing the alternative press for a new twenty-something readership, but these people have all acted like Generation X would be the last generation to read for pleasure and entertainment and political edification, and they will follow that readership to the grave (even though that readership stopped using the listings–and thus stopped reading the paper about ten years ago). Maybe they’re right, but the last time I checked, kids were still being taught how to read.
It will be very interesting to see how long the Powers That Be can keep their butt-pickers off the local editorial. I expect to see them make the dumbest mistake right out of the gate–tweaking local design to comport with their papers in other markets. I won’t blather on about it here, but design is one of the things that is absolutely murdering the alternative press, and it is such a simple thing not to do. Heavily templated content is like receiving every Christmas present in the same wrapping, with the same ribbons and bows, with identical greeting cards. Eventually, you’d rather sit under someone else’s Christmas tree than have to open yet another Red Baron-themed raft of presents, no matter what treasures you might find within.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I freelanced for City Pages over the years, and several staff members here have worked at City Pages–including our publishers, who founded City Pages.
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