The Village Voice to End Weekly Print Edition

Iconic New York alt-weekly The Village Voice will no longer produce its print edition. The beloved publication, cofounded by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and Norman Mailer in 1955, has been distributed for free in the New York City area for decades. As The NYT’s Michael M. Grynbaum points out, the end of its print edition is the “end of a journalism era in New York City.”

Over the years, the Voice has been home to some of America’s premiere music writing and rock critics, including Robert Christgau, Nat Hentoff, Chuck Eddy, Sasha Frere-Jones and countless others. In the early 1970s, Christgau launched the paper’s annual “Pazz & Jop” critics poll of albums and singles, which has grown to include more than 1,000 music writers and remains an influential year-end arbiter of pop music.

Although the free weekly edition will end, The Village Voice’s website will continue on as normal, with “plans to maintain its iconic progressive brand with its digital platform and a variety of new editorial initiatives and a full slate of events that will include The Obie Awards and The Pride Awards,” per a press release.

“For more than 60 years, The Village Voice brand has played an outsized role in American journalism, politics, and culture,” said owner Peter Barbey in a statement. “It has been a beacon for progress and a literal voice for thousands of people whose identities, opinions, and ideas might otherwise have been unheard. I expect it to continue to be that and much, much more.”

Read The Village Voice’s full announcement below.

Village Voice to End Free Weekly Print Edition pic.twitter.com/IPdQSh8zgm

— Alan Scherstuhl (@studiesincrap) August 22, 2017