Business

Village Voice tosses veteran columnists Musto, Feingold

Turmoil continued to grip the Village Voice today, with owners of the free weekly axing two of its most well-known columnists — Michael Musto, who had penned the gossipy La Dolce Vita for 20 years, and veteran theater critic and 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Feingold.

Feingold was a staffer for 30 years.

“As of next week, veteran gossip columnist Michael Musto and longtime theater critic Michael Feingold will no longer be staffers at the Voice,” the company acknowledged in a statement.

Feingold will go ahead on Monday with hosting the Obies, the off-Broadway theater awards program sponsored by the Voice.

“I’m still trying to figure out my reaction,” said Feingold today. “They made what they consider is a very generous severance package.”

In addition, freelance food writer Robert Sietsema will no longer be a regular weekly contributor.

The prospect of these and other cuts is what prompted Editor-in-Chief Will Bourne and his deputy, Jessica Lustig, to resign suddenly last week.

Bourne had said he was being asked to chop or substantially cut back five positions — although the company insisted the cuts were not quite that steep.

“The net effect of these changes will be to slightly reduce the number of editorial employees at the publication — by less than one full-time position — and better align the Voice with the long-term business and editorial goals of the company,” the company said in the statement.

The company insisted it has recently added staff, too, like part-time food writer Laura Shunk.

The company, once owned by Phoenix-based New Times, has since sold itself to a group of the company’s executives and renamed itself Voice Media Group.

kkelly@nypost.com