LA Weekly, Editor to Part Ways

I liked Laurie. I only met her a few times, and brief at that, but I liked her. I hope she moves on in life and finds what she’s looking for.

After eight years as editor in chief, Laurie Ochoa is leaving LA Weekly as Village Voice Media severs more of its own legacy.

It’s unclear who instigated the move. But VVM didn’t make life easy for Ochoa.

Critics say LA Weekly’s quality began declining after it was merged into New Times (now VVM) in 2005. The alt-newspaper chain reportedly went over Ochoa’s head in late 2006 to install an unpopular news editor.

There’s no word yet on what Ochoa’s next move is — and the Weekly has no replacement lined up.

Read more at defamer.com.au.

All Press is Good Press

As the pimpin’ wars continue, Village Voice Media wants to be heard. As reported 2 weeks ago, Craigslist CEO Buckmaster decided to whine to the world by throwing his competition under the bus. Now VVM strikes back.

And you thought the South Carolina v. Craigslist story was dead.

If anything sucks more than being the target of an ambitious but delusional gubernatorial candidate who has suddenly developed a bit of a fetish for prostitution, it’s being ignored by that candidate. As far as Village Voicesees the world, Craigslist just got a bunch of free press. And they want their share.

When Craigslist management was facing a criminal investigation for listings on the site they did the smart thing. They talked about the law, and they pointed out that the real smut was on other sites that were being ignored by the South Carolina Attorney General. If you really want hard core porn and prostitution, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster pointed out, check out Village Voice’s BackPage.com.

That’s all body fluids under the bridge now, of course, since a federal judge smacked down McMaster and forbid him from stalking Craigslist management.

But Village Voice is still smarting from those Buckmaster links in that blog post. Yesterday they issued a very official press release titled “Village Voice Media to Craigslist CEO Buckmaster: Calm Down, Back Off; There is Nothing Wrong With a Little Competition.”

Read the rest of the story on techcrunch.com

VVM Sites Now Get 40 Percent Of Traffic From Blogs

This is actually quite a transition. Those involved in traditional media can understand the challenges of transforming 1 news organization around… print staff becoming web savvy, retail finding and shifting to new forms of revenue, IT staff gearing up for a complete digital transition… now try that times 15. We have a dedicated organization driven to succeed in this new arena. Thank you techcrunch.com for giving us a little pimpin’

techcrunch.com – The future of the weekly city paper is the daily blog. Hints of this future can already be seen at Village Voice Media, which owns and operates 15 of the top weeklies in the country, including the Village Voice, SF Weekly, and LA Weekly. Bill Jensen, the director of new media who oversees all the Village Voice Media sites tells me that 40 percent of pageviews comes from the blogs on the sites, up from 20 percent a year ago. Some of the more popular ones include columnist Michael Musto’s blog, Nikki Finke’s Deadline Holywood Daily, and Topless Robot.

Of course, the sites feature music listings, restaurant reviews, and articles from the print editions as well, but the blogs are driving an increasing portion of the traffic. The online and print newsrooms are combined and everyone is expected to post on the Web. Long gone are the days when a music reviewer could attend a rock show and turn in his copy three days later. “I don’t care how drunk you are,” says Jensen, “you post by 9 AM.”

Read the rest of the article at: techcrunch.com

Craig Wants an Apology… Good Luck.

Craig Craig Craig… This was a real glimmer of weakness from an .org that seemed untouchable. Of all the responses to a statement by a redneck/right-wing hillbilly complaining about online porn, you use classified competitors as an example? Huh? What about imgonnadoyourmominthebutt.com? Jeesh Craig, I expected more from a beatnik SF hippie.

bizjournals.com – Jim Buckmaster, CEO of classified ad business Craigslist, asked for an apology from South Carolina’s attorney general, who threatened to prosecute him because of sex ads on the site.

In a blog entry on Monday, Buckmaster said Henry McMaster’s threats of “criminal investigation and potential prosecution” were unwarranted and also unconstitutional.

McMaster, who is considering a possible run for governor in his state, made his threats against both Buckmaster and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, as well as other employees of the San Francisco business. He said in a letter to Craigslist that the ads constituted prostitution and were therefore illegal.

Read the rest of the story at bizjournals.com.

Fun at The East Bay Express

For what it’s worth, I miss Stephen. We had daily contact and his drive is contagious.

Metro Pulse – I wish we had the time, energy, and photogenic qualities to do stuff like this:

The East Bay Express in Oakland is one of my favorite alt-weeklies; it’s really well written and they do stuff like run Sarah Palin songwriting contests. A few years ago, editor Stephen Buel managed to actually buy back his paper from former corporate overlord Village Voice Media. (Plus, back when I was living there, he let me write up some winners in their “Best of the East Bay” poll, though I was by no means an expert on local culture.)

The video is great fun, and the answer to the newspaper industry’s woes is not surprising.

Bay Guardian at it Again

SF Weekly – Editor’s note: From the moment SF Weekly published its first issue as a New Times publication in 1995, Bruce Brugmann, Tim Redmond, and their employees at the Bay Guardian made clear their intention to run us out of town. Brugmann famously said that San Francisco would be our Afghanistan. When all else failed, they sued SF Weekly in 2004 for sales below cost. The nearly $16 million verdict is on appeal.

On Good Friday, April 10, Redmond sent us the following announcement making clear his intent to up the ante. We offer you his words in their entirety, and our response. Read the rest of this entry »