David Blum

In May, Manhattan Media, publishers of the New York Press, City Hall, and other local New York papers, acquired 02138 and announced plans to reposition the Harvard lifestyle magazine.

Today, another release touts several hires at the magazine. George Lois, creator of Esquire's most iconic magazine covers of the 1960s and Pentagram's Luke Hayman have been tapped to redesign the magazine. Jamie Hooper, who launched Giant magazine in 2004, will be 02138's new publisher. And David Blum, the editorial director of Manhattan Media and the editor in chief of the New York Press, will become editor-in-chief of 02138 when it resumes printing with its December/January issue.  read more »

Yesterday afternoon, New York Press editor David Blum sent out an e-mail to Media Mob advertising his newest sex columnist.

just wanted to let you know, we launched a new sex-advice column this week (on the cover, which i've attached)... it's by claudia lonow, a television comedy writer, and i hope you'll think it's funny. anyway, since everyone seems fascinated with the comings and goings of sex columnists, i thought you might be interested.  read more »

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The New York Press wants to redesign its web site. David Blum, the paper's editor, sent a letter to the Columbia j-school list serv looking for freelance web designers. In a conversation with Media Mob, he said couldn't quite recall when the web site last had a redesign, but agreed that it badly needs one (and hey! speaking of: did you notice things have changed around here too?).

In the past two days, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz has been getting a lot of attention for his “scoop” about Dan Rather.

But the anecdote, published today in his book Reality Show, is old news.

In Mr. Kurtz’s book, he writes that former CBS anchor threatened to release a document to The New York Times if his now-widely-discredited National Guard story did not run on 60 Minutes.  read more »

On two occasions when executives of Village Voice Media came to visit The Village Voice’s then  read more »

Tony Ortega, 43, has been named editor of the Village Voice. The hiring comes the first business day after Friday's firing of Village Voice editor David Blum.

Ortega is an 11-year veteran of Village Voice Media, the paper's parent company--specifically, of the New Times chain, which merged with the Voice chain in January 2006, taking the Voice name.

He was previously editor of New Times Broward-Palm Beach.

-Michael Calderone

The Village Voice has just named Deborah Kolben, formerly the city editor of the New York Sun, as the paper's managing editor.

Since David Blum, ex-Sun television critic, took over as the Voice's editor-in-chief, there have been several defections from the conservative daily to the lefty weekly. Ms. Kolben now joins Sun alumni Nathan Lee (film critic) and Maggie Shnayerson (PR Director) over at Cooper Square.  read more »

Full release after the jump.

"When eight people are laid off from an institution, it's not a happy day," said David Blum, incoming editor-in-chief of the Village Voice.

Blum was on the phone after a meeting with staff at the newspaper's Cooper Square office. Last week, his superiors-to-be at Village Voice Media dismissed eight staffers from the weekly paper. Today, six days before his official Sept. 12 start date, Blum told the remaining staff that no more layoffs were in the works, and that any future dismissals would go through him, according to a staffer present at the meeting.

"I felt it was important for them to hear from me," Blum said.

About 40 Voice employees and freelance contributors crammed into the newspaper's third-floor conference room at 3 p.m.

During the half-hour meeting, several long-time staffers, including Tom Robbins, Nat Hentoff and Wayne Barrett posed questions to Blum. Topics included whether more writers will be hired and how the paper will approach international and national news coverage, according to a staffer.

As expected, Village Voice Media, the company that purchased the alternative weekly this past November--then under the name New Times--came up often.

The Voice is a unionized paper, and New Times was accustomed to working with nonunion shops. Blum, a member of the Writers Guild in his previous job as a television writer, told the staff that he was a "union guy," though now in a managerial role.

"He had strong words about how he is in charge," said a Voice staffer. "If he doesn't think that something's right, he's not going to do it."

"Beginning Sept. 12, what happens at the paper is my responsibility," Blum said. "I wanted them to put a face to future developments so they know who to blame--or shower with praise.

On Sept. 7, Blum is scheduled to fly out to Denver to meet with Michael Lacey, executive editor of Village Voice media, and other company executives. Although Lacey hired Blum, the pair only met once, during a job interview at the Hotel on Rivington.

And what issues might come up in Denver?

"I think the main concern seems to be that the staff wants [to] see its content provided by its own writers, and not by writers outside of New York," Blum said. "By and large, I agree with that."

-Michael Calderone

The Village Voice announced that David Blum is the latest choice for its hard-to-fill editor-in-chief post. The memo making the announcement is after the jump.  read more »