This Tweet echoes exactly how I felt when I saw newspaper racks all over New York City displaying a fresh copy of a printed The Village Voice.
I admit I did a double take, but it really was the Voice, announcing that just as New York’s Coming Back, so is the Voice.
A piece in The New York Times explains how this happened:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/business/media/the-village-voice-returns.html
The takeaway:
The new issue, which came out on Saturday, is the first print incarnation of the storied independent publication since August 2017, when its previous owner, Peter D. Barbey, took it digital-only a year before shutting it down. Brian Calle, the publisher of LA Weekly, bought The Voice in December and revived its dormant website in January.
He plans to publish a print issue about four times a year, he added, meaning that a famed alt-weekly is now an alt-quarterly. The end goal is to publish monthly.
This is good news, not just because The Voice is such an integral part of New York City, but because it comes at a time when New Yorkers and Americans everywhere are beginning to sense that some normalcy is returning to our lives after the horrific Covid19 pandemic.
Seeing a copy of a printed Village Voice in that newspaper rack is as normal as things can get. For print lovers, a win win. We wish the Voice team good luck as they continue to publish this iconic newspaper.
And for those who like to collect souvenir special editions, the first print edition of The Village Voice since 2017 is already available for collectors to buy on Ebay:
Print and my Columbia class
Monday, as I completed my lecture at Columbia’s School of Journalism about the role of print in a mobile world, I asked my 14 graduate students to be honest and tell me about their contact with print on a daily basis. The results can be summarized here with these partial quotes:
- “I only read The New Yorker in its print edition.”
- “U only come in contact with print to read some books.”
- “I read two daily newspapers in print.”
- “I never read anything printed anymore, all my news and information I consume on mobile devices.”
I also noticed that when I first started my class at Columbia, there would always be a couple of printed newspapers on the table—mostly The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. This semester is about to end and I have never seen a copy of a printed newspaper anywhere.
That is why the return of a print edition of The Village Voice is a good bit of news to make us celebrate spring—and print.
Our Monday blog about the role of print in a mobile world:
Our mobile storytelling workshops now available remotely
Professors: get your review version of The Story on time for fall classes
As an academic, I know the importance of having the right tools to advance our students, especially on the important subject of mobile storytelling. Please drop me an email if you would like to sample The Story in its digital edition: mario@garciamedia.com
Start writing or type / to choose a block
The full trilogy of The Story now available–3 books to guide you through a mobile first strategy. Whether you’re a reporter, editor, designer, publisher, corporate communicator, The Story is for you! https://amazon
TheMarioBlog post # 3310