VVM hits SXSW Hard

houstonpress.com – Village Voice Media, the Houston Press’ daddy company, has announced the line-up for this year’s SXSW day party at La Zona Rosa, set for March 19 at noon. The show hasn’t disappointed since Rocks Off has been aboard, with 2008 bringing the Black Keys, HEALTH and …Trail Of Dead and last year the Crystal Antlers, M. Ward, Cursive and Gomez enlivening five-hour event.
This year’s line-up is just as striking as the previous two, with current indie darlings and Rocks Off faves Surfer Blood, The xx, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and the legendary Superchunk rounding out our bill. We told we know how to stack the deck, kids.

Village Voice Media & XO Join in Partnership

money.cnn.com – XO Communications (OTCBB: XOHO) today announced that it has deployed a nationwide MPLS IP-VPN solution for Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC (VVMH), for the benefit of its operating companies that consist of 14 weekly newspapers and daily Web sites, including New York’s Village Voice, the LA Weekly, Denver’s Westword and the Phoenix New Times.

XO Communications is providing a fully managed MPLS-based wide area networking solution connecting the various locations of the operating companies across nine states, including a data center and VVMH corporate offices in Phoenix, Arizona. The XO MPLS IP-VPN solution provides VVMH and its operating companies with a secure, private IP network with Class of Service capabilities and high-speed Ethernet access to support optimal performance for delivery of digital media files and access to central applications. The XO solution also paves the way for VVMH and the operating companies’ eventual migration to Voice over IP (VoIP).
Read more @ money.cnn.com

SF Guardian Lies Again

businessinsider.com – In a Bloomberg piece posted earlier today, reporters speculated that the Village Voice, a New York alternative newspaper, might face backruptcy court soon. Reporters spoke with lawyers from both sides of the court cases and added detailed analysis below a headline: “Village Voice May Face Forced Bankruptcy in Ad Fight.”

Michael Lacey, executive editor of Village Voice Media, just sent out a letter in response to reports that the paper was about to face bankruptcy court.

The false, inaccurate smear published by Bloomberg News regarding Village Voice Media litigation is outrageous. There is no bankruptcy proceeding against Village Voice Media or any of its publications nor are there legal grounds to bring one.
Read the full article at: businessinsider.com

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.
Read more at forbes.com

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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Deadline Hollywood Daily sold for several million dollars; LA Weekly to hire new showbiz blogger

Good bye Nikki, we wish you the best… more to come…
In March 2006, Nikki Finke started Deadline Hollywood Daily as an outlet for scoops that couldn’t wait for her column in LA Weekly. She initially earned nothing extra for the blog.

Today she has sold the site, which she owns entirely, to Mail.com Media Group in a deal worth several million dollars.

“I have really sacrificed, but it was a conscious decision and I love doing this,” Finke said of the experience.

According to a person familiar with the terms, Finke, the site’s sole owner and writer-editor, will get a low seven-figure sum to sell Deadline Hollywood Daily plus several million dollars over the life of a five-year-plus employment contract. The deal also grants her a portion of the site’s advertising revenue.

Though it took its name from Finke’s column in the paper, LA Weekly had no ownership stake in Deadline Hollywood Daily. The Village Voice Media-owned publication simply sold ads and, after the site started to grow, paid Finke a stipend.

Read more at latimes.com