Alt-Press Reacts to 'New Times'/'VV' Merger

By: E&P Staff When the news broke on Monday confirming the New Times/Village Voice merger -- pending Justice Department approval -- many in the alternative press held forth with strong opinions on the deal.

The (Seattle) Stranger's Dan Savage bats down the theory, raised in a New York Times article, that the purchase by the New Times may spell trouble for the "anti-establishment" Voice and its siblings. Savage pointed out that the Village Voice's various owners have at one point or another included the following: investment bankers Goldman Sachs, Weisspeck & Greer, and Canadian Imperial; pet-food magnate and billionaire investor Leonard Stern; and the piece de resistance, "right wing whack-job" Rupert Murdoch.

"With its purchase by New Times, the VVM chain will be owned by a smaller, more anti-establishment corporation than it has been in years," Savage concluded.

Not so fast, says San Francisco Bay Guardian Editor and Publisher Bruce Brugmann, whose paper first reported on negotiations between the two companies back in May. "This new corporate behemoth is a force in the alternative industry that is larger than any in the mainstream," Brugmann told The Arizona Republic's Judy Nichols, whose article noted that Brugmann has a lawsuit pending against the New Times over predatory pricing in the San Francisco market.

"Alternative to what, Motherfucker?" asks Mick Farren of Los Angeles CityBeat, who sends a warning flare that New Times could water-down Village Voice content. "New Times has demonstrated the kind of arrogance that would cause it to gut what editorial integrity the venerable Voice and the advertising-fat L.A. Weekly have left and force them to conform to the formula that failed before," Farren writes.

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN), meanwhile, posted a statement on its Web site regarding the merger and its impact on the organization's bylaws:

AAN's two largest member companies, New Times Media and Village Voice Media, announced yesterday that they plan to merge. At present, the two companies publish seventeen alternative weeklies, each of which is a member in good standing of the association.

According to AAN bylaws, the memberships held by the six papers currently owned by the acquired company, Village Voice Media, "shall automatically transfer to the new publisher," until the transfer is either affirmed or rejected by AAN members. If the deal is approved by regulators in a timely manner, the membership affirmation process for the six Village Voice Media papers will culminate at the 2007 annual meeting, which will be held in approximately 20 months. Under that process, in order to remain in the association, the membership of each paper under review must "be affirmed by a vote of one-third or more" of the regular members of the association present or represented by proxy at the annual meeting.

If the merger is approved in its present form, the merged company will own 13.6 percent of the 126 newspapers that are current members of the association. AAN bylaws state that, "The total votes of any single publishing company on any issue (excluding proxies held by such company) shall not exceed 15 percent of the total regular memberships at the time of the vote."