New York’s alt-weekly The Village Voice to cease its print run after 62 years

After 62 years of publication, New York’s famous alternative weekly The Village Voice has announced that it will end its free print run to focus on online publishing. The paper is regarded as the leading publication for the alternative, bohemian scene that proliferated downtown and Greenwich Village. In a statement issued yesterday, its owners have committed to maintain the brand through its “digital platform and a variety of new editorial initiatives.”

The paper, owned by Peter Barbey since 2015, has won a number of Pulitzer prizes for its stories and is famed for its arts and culture coverage as well as its work with the LGBTQ community. “The Village Voice has been a beacon for progress and a literal voice for thousands of people whose identities, opinions and ideas might otherwise have been unheard.” said Barbey in a statement. “The most powerful thing about The Voice wasn’t that it was printed on newsprint or that it came out every week. It was that The Village Voice was alive, and that it changed in step with and reflected the times and the ever-evolving world around it”

The paper switched to a free distribution model in 1996. The latest change is a result of changing advertising revenues and the demands of readers for a more diverse range of media. In going digital the owners hope to enable The Voice to “move forward more freely … so that The Village Voice brand is not just once again viable, but vital.”