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Village Voice Media maximum editor Michael Lacey talked to Boston's The Phoenix about what the New Times takeover will mean at the Village Voice—and, I guess, by extension what he'll be looking for here and in OC. Mark Jurkowitz writes:
After a nervous meeting several weeks ago between the new conglomerate’s executive editor Mike Lacey and Voice staffers, Sydney Schanberg resigned his media column, columnist Nat Hentoff’s future seems cloudy, and more staff turnover appears inevitable as the venerable organ of progressive politics is pushed toward a new editorial model....Lacey stresses that he is looking for more original reporting and “magazine-style journalism” at the Voice and bemoans the amount of similar-sounding commentary on its pages. “This industry has been afflicted by this kind of shut-in mentality,” he says. “Are people prepared to receive the message? There were a lot of people [at that meeting] who didn’t like what I said.”
Aware of the Voice’s left-liberal politics, Lacey says he’s not opposed to Bush-bashing, but insists he wants it to be homegrown.
“No one has given journalists more ammunition in America than this guy,” he says. “Let’s go get it.”
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Asked about more staff turnover, Lacey says, “any time you have a change of ownership, there’s going to be a natural amount of fallout.” He is looking for a new editor “who has a news background,” is “familiar with magazine-style journalism” and “understands New York.” Voice acting editor Doug Simmons has already expressed his interest in the job.
Lacey also emailed a followup to the Phoenix: "For Village Voice writers to repeat week after week that they oppose George Bush is to state the obvious, not to mention that readers can find the scoops being cited every single morning in The New York Times, where journalists continually break news about this president's prosecution of the war and abuse of the First Amendment safeguards . . . I expect original reporting not merely some lazy form of print blogging."
Link via Romenesko