Village Voice Media Shows the Industry How to Make Ad Revenue

Village Voice Media thinks it can teach others how to pull new sources of ad revenue.

Forbes.com – Jim Larkin, chief executive officer of the Village Voice Media publishing company, is baffled by other media companies these days.

Over the past year, news outlets have scurried to go local in hopes of pulling in new ad revenue from mom-and-pop shops that have traditionally turned only to the local Yellow Pages to place their ads. In September, ESPN launched ESPNBoston.com, and a Dallas site is in the works. Patch, a unit of AOL, rolled out in March of this year, attracting eyes and advertisers in communities where newspapers have scaled back or closed shop. The New York Times launched its own online version, “The Local,” in two Brooklyn neighborhoods, as well as in South Orange, Millburn and Maplewood, N.J. Local online ad spending is expected to reach $14.2 billion this year, up 12% over 2008, according to media analytics firm Borrell Associates.

Larkin’s view of the phenomenon: Well, duh. The 60-year-old Phoenix native and his long-time business partner Michael Lacey have spent almost 30 years building their own variety. It was called New Times Media until 2006, when the owners merged it with the New York weekly the Village Voice, (now Village Voice Media). It’s the publisher of 14 local publications, including the Houston Press, the LA Weekly, and of course the 54-year-old Village Voice.
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Ruxton Becomes Voice Media Group

PHOENIX, AZ–(Marketwire – November 5, 2009) – Voice Media Group, the one-stop lifestyle agency formerly known as the Ruxton Group, launched today, giving national brands a unique, targeted advertising gateway to young, urban consumers. As part of the Village Voice Media Holdings LLC family of companies, Voice Media Group helps brands engage with an audience of active young adults in every major national market through integrated print, online, event and street team offerings. In turn, it gives its alternative publisher partners access to valuable national brand marketing dollars.
Voice Media Group’s national network of 50 alternative print publications and more than 100 digital publications and Web sites reaches more than eight million newspaper readers, and receives more than 25 million unique digital visitors per month. It offers brands a national footprint with hyper-local reach to target consumers by verticals, interests, demographics or a combination of the three. In addition, Voice Media Group streamlines the ad buying process — from inventory to creative to billing — so advertisers can easily take advantage of the company’s entire platform and services.
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