Village Voice Brings on a New Top Editor

Two months after the Village Voice‘s editor and deputy editor walked out, Voice Media Group has tapped Tom Finkel, the editor of the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, to take the helm at the struggling alt-weekly. The move comes after a string of difficulties for the Voice, which has recently seen high-level resignations, layoffs, and a relocation from its iconic offices in New York’s Greenwich Village.

The company has burned through a number of different editors since it was sold 2005.  Two months after the acquisition, longtime editor Don Forst resigned after 9 years. His replacement, Doug Simmons, was fired three months later in 2006. Erik Wemple, the next replacement, resigned after two weeks. The following editor, David Blum, left in March 2007. Tony Ortega was then the editor for five years afterwards before leaving to write a Scientology novel. And the most recent editor, Will Bourne, resigned after refusing to lay off a large portion of the editorial staff in May.

Like many alt-weeklies, the Voice has struggled to stay afloat in the transition from print to digital. Its readership has suffered in recent years, with print circulation dropping by more than 40% between 2007 and 2012. Meanwhile, growing pressure from civic groups and law enforcement forced the company separate its classifieds business, a profit hub for the company, from its 13 local publications, which were sold to Voice Media Group in September 2012.

Max Antonucci is an intern at Street Fight.