Turmoil has gripped the Village Voice once again after its top two editors walked off the job.
Editor-in-Chief William Bourne, who took the helm in November, quit yesterday along with Deputy Editor Jessica Lustig rather than make more staff cuts demanded by the new owners.
“Voice Media Group today accepted the resignations of editors Will Bourne and Jessica Lustig,” the company said in a statement. “Following their departure, VMG will be instituting further structural and staffing changes at the publication.”
However, the company quibbled with reports that it had asked the editors to cut five employees on the 20-person staff, saying, “Contrary to published reports, those changes do not involve laying off five members of the editorial staff.”
The Denver-based owners are turning to an out-of-towner, Pete Kotz, to be interim editor while they search for a permanent replacement. Kotz has edited the Cleveland Scene and the Nashville Scene and most recently oversaw blogs for the company.
Out-of-towners have not worked out too well in the past for the Voice. Eric Wemple, then-editor of the Washington City Paper, said he accepted the job in 2006, but then changed his mind after clashing with the owners.
That cleared the way for Tony Ortega to be imported from Miami New Times.
He caught the eye of the previous owners with a highly charged piece that claimed hedge-fund millionaire Bruce McMahan had seduced and married his long-lost biological daughter in a secret ceremony at Westminister Abbey.
More recently, questions about the veracity of that story have surfaced, including the fact that only the royals and members of the immediate parish around Westminister Abbey can be married there.
Six months ago, Ortega insisted he was leaving to write a book about Scientology, a topic that seemed to consume a lot of his energy in the final months of his editorship.
The company under its previous owners had bigger problems on the business side, enduring tremendous pressure from state attorneys general, politicians and religious leaders because of its adult listings guide.
Critics said the Voice’s Backpage.com, which is said to clear $20 million in profit a year, was serving as a conduit for prostitution and child pornography.
The then-top executives at the company, Executive Editor Michael Lacey and CEO Jim Larkin, who had taken over the Village Voice in 2005, insisted it was a legitimate business with safeguards.
When Goldman Sachs opted out of its stake in 2012 and advertisers started pulling ads under pressure, the company finally relented and split into two pieces.
The alternative papers including the Voice were sold to an insider group of editors and top executives based in Denver, while the adult site stayed with the old Phoenix-based ownership team headed by Larkin and Lacey.
When Bourne took over, he said he had been assured by the new owners that the relentless cuts of the Lacey/Larkin era were over.
He said when he hired Lustig in late January to be his deputy, it was a sign that the staff was being rebuilt.
“The proposed changes do include minimal staff reductions, and directly align with the long-term growth strategy of Voice Media Group,” the company said.
Newsday blues
Newsday’s mounting losses appear to be topping more than $100 million annually.
Cablevision took over the Long Island paper for $650 million from the bankrupt Tribune Company in 2008, and took a charge the following year to write down the value of the newspaper by about 70 percent.
The company, which reported quarterly results yesterday, doesn’t break out Newsday; it falls under an “other businesses” group that also includes News 12 and MSG Varsity. The group had a combined quarterly loss of $100 million.
“We think the loss being generated by Newsday is approximately $35 million this quarter,” said Richard Tullo, an analyst at Albert Fried, who estimates annual losses for the Long Island paper to be about $100 million last year.
“I was a little shocked to see that they lost more money this quarter than a year ago,” he said.
The red ink has some analysts wondering if the paper should be sold, especially since Cablevision has sold and spun off several other businesses.
“You spin off MSG and Rainbow and recently sold Clearview and Bresnan, so how do you think about Newsday at this point?” asked Well Fargo Securities analyst Marci Ryvicker during the company’s earnings earnings call yesterday.
Company execs said they have no plans to sell the paper.
“Newsday is a core asset for us,” said Gregg Seibert, Cablevision’s vice chairman and chief financial officer. “It fits in with our cable operations and our focus on providing the best in local news coverage to our customers in conjunction with Newsday.”