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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Media Village Voice Media Lays Off 19 Journalists Nationwide

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 12:37 PM

Building on the news that layoffs hit the Seattle Weekly newsroom yesterday, parent company Village Voice Media executive associate editor Andy Van De Voorde confirms today that the company has laid off a total of 19 people from its outlets around the United States. "It's painful to lose really good people," he says.

So far there are confirmations of layoffs at SF Weekly, City Pages, and Seattle Weekly.

"In all, we lost 19 journalists yesterday," Van De Voorde continues. "Some of these were staff writers. Some were web editors. Some were specialists such as arts bloggers, who had been added to staffs more recently but who we unfortunately weren't able to retain. This is not a reflection on them, it's a reflection on the economy, which, as Mike Seely has already noted in his comment to you, continues to be brutal, and continues to affect publications and other businesses all around the country." He didn't comment on how many news outlets were affected, only saying, "At a number of papers, one person was laid off; at others, such as Seattle Weekly, it was more."

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My problem with Steven Colbert is exactly my problem with Dom's blog post: calling these clowns today in America "journalists" or "reporters" -- or in Mr. Colbert's case, "stenographers" (which clearly stenography requires some competency, which none of those six-figure and seven-figure salaried whorescom Colbert was referring to have) -- is a real stretch.

After Knute and Geov were flushed from the Weekly, there wasn't any reportage left there.

Posted by sgt_doom on September 28, 2011 at 12:47 PM

(I believe it's Van De Voorde, Dominic.)

Posted by rob!

on September 28, 2011 at 1:22 PM

@2) Thanks and... ack! Fixed.

Posted by Dominic Holden on September 28, 2011 at 1:25 PM

OC Weekly down one, SF Weekly four (so far).

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/oc…

What's this "we lost" shit? If you fire someone, own it, goddammit.

Posted by rob!

on September 28, 2011 at 1:27 PM

http://www.observer.com/2011/09/lay-offs…

Posted by rob!

on September 28, 2011 at 1:33 PM

Why doesn't VVM lay off a couple high-salary people instead of a bunch of lower-ranking ones? Like, oh, I don't know... Andy "The Rabid Pitbull" van de Voorde? Lord knows he's caused them more real problems than probably any other VVM employee.

Posted by treacle on September 28, 2011 at 4:15 PM