New Yorkers may have noticed something strange in the last few days: copies of The Village Voice, fresh off the press and still free, on newsstands and in street boxes.
“It all makes sense,” said the longtime Voice columnist Michael Musto, who has a byline in the return issue. “New York is back, The Voice is back, I’m back.”
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.
“For us, putting a print issue out was a stake in the ground,” Mr. Calle said. “It really makes the relaunch of The Village Voice real in a way it wasn’t before.”
boycotts led by former writers for the publication and a lawsuit filed by an investor.
Mr. Musto said Mr. Calle was a fan of the paper’s old spirit. “He wants The Village Voice in all of its old, spunky, lefty history,” he said. “The new issue, to me, looks very Village Voice-y.”
Mr. Calle said anyone concerned about the latest iteration should read it and “judge for themselves.”