The New York Press is reporting today that the workforce at the Village Voice is contemplating a strike over "proposed cuts in healthcare coverage."

"We are adamant that there won't be any givebacks here,” said Tom Robbins, Voice legend and de-facto spokesman for the Voice's incredibly strong union, represented by United Auto Workers Local 2110. “We pay through the nose. We pay co-payments that are very expensive for our members with children. They want more co-payments, they want more, more.”

“If we don't get it, all bets are off,” Robbins warned.

PERSONAL DAYS
By Ed Park
Random House, 241 pages, $13

I VOLUNTEERED TO REVIEW THIS novel by my former Village Voice co-worker Ed Park because I assumed the conflicts of interest would be so blatant they’d implode—a roman à clef, in which I myself might play a minor role, about the alt-weekly where I got fired the same day young Ed did. But it wasn’t that simple. If this is indeed a roman à clef, nobody gave me the key. Even when I was editing a section there, I never kept up with Voice gossip, and what little I know suggests that aside from a few management butts, who are rendered with admirable sympathy, these young characters are heavily fictionalized, imported from elsewhere or altogether invented.  read more »

New York City does not have a nickname (in the official sense) and the latest Batman installment The Dark Night is coming to movie theaters this summer. What does one have to do with the other you ask?

A trio of City Councilmen thinks New York should capitalize on the blockbuster-generated publicity wave coming soon so they have introduced a resolution designating New York City’s new nickname “Gotham City," just in time for the caped crusader to grace cinema screens across the country.  read more »

When Village Voice Media named Tony Ortega editor of its flagship paper, The Village Voice, The Observer asked him about his relationship with Michael Lacey, the man who runs VVM and who has been accused of micromanaging his stable of newspapers from his Phoenix offices.

“I never really had that problem with him,” said Mr. Ortega, who had worked for Mr. Lacey since 1995, most recently as editor in chief of New Times Broward-Palm Beach. “I’ve always had complete freedom to do what I wanted.”  read more »

This week's issue of Newsweek contains a story by DC investigative reporter Michael Isikoff on Rudy Giuliani's ties to terror-financing outfits in the Middle East. The piece treads much of the same ground as a Village Voice story by Wayne Barrett published last week. Today, in a blog post that drew attention to the two pieces under the heading "Giving Credit Where It's Due," The Voice appeared to argue that its reporting should have been credited by Newsweek.

Media Mob asked Mr. Isikoff about the decision not to credit The Voice. His emailed response after the jump...  read more »