Tony Ortega

There was almost a full-on press melee in Philadelphia this weekend at the Alternative Newsweeklies Convention. According to Gustavo Arellano, The OC Weekly's "Ask a Mexican" columnist, he and Village Voice editor-in-chief Tony Ortega, New York Times culture editor Sam Sifton and Times media critic David Carr were called "nerds" by a "big mook" on their walk back to the Downtown Marriot after an evening of boozing at a local press hangout.

"All of us were in various stages of inebriation (from nothing to Jim Beam-ing), all of us were living life," Mr. Arellano later wrote. "If the guy said it to my face, I'da kick[ed] his ass! ... Carr, Sifton, and Ortega made similar threats. We headed to the Marriot's bar for a nightcapper and laughed with the knowledge our nerdish ways have rewarded us with lives of leisure, while that assaulting asshole could only look forward to trimming his precious goatee."  read more »

In the wake of Norman Mailer's death Saturday, it's seemed like every news outlet in the city has had extended coverage of the writer's rollicking life and his influence on American letters. But the paper Mailer helped found in 1955, The Village Voice, had surprisngly little to say.

This week's edition of the paper contains a 1,200-word obit that starts at the bottom of a page dominated by a large cartoon. The cover, which highlights a story about the dangers of getting hit by a bus in New York, makes no mention of Mailer. But the paper did run a two-page spread on longtime Voice photographer Fred McDarrah who passed away last week--which it did flag on the cover.

Voice editor Tony Ortega explains the paper's thinking after the jump...  read more »

Village Voice editor Tony Ortega has fired his number two, managing editor Deborah Kolben. Ms. Kolben, who started at the Voice last February mere days before then-editor David Blum was fired, is the eleventh woman to leave the newspaper since Mr. Ortega took over in March.

A full breakdown of those eleven after the jump.

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Although he says it ain’t so, Tony Ortega appears to be playing tricks again with a recent cover promoting a story about the health risks of WTC rescue workers.  read more »

“This was a mild stunt, not a heavy editorial,” he said.  read more »

Adult ads have come under fire lately. So The Village Voice's Tony Ortega decided “the best response from the newsroom was to poke some fun at ourselves.”  read more »

The Village Voice has added another staff writer to its roster: Graham Rayman, formerly of Newsday, starts May 14.

An email from TonyO (that's how he tags himself in the subject line!) announced the decision to staff today.

Rayman's done a lot of investigative work "covering New York City's courts, politicians, crimes, and disasters."

Besides naming him a "staff writer" and saying he'll be "a tremendous asset to the Voice's long-standing investigative news tradition," it's not clear from the email what he'll be covering.

And we wonder how tremendous an asset Wayne Barrett will find him to be.

The full text of the press release follows:  read more »

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

"I'm trying not to worry about all that crap on Gawker," said Tony Ortega, the newly named editor in chief of the Village Voice. "I don't feel it reflects the people and the work there."

On Mar. 4, two days after the previous editor in chief, David Blum, was fired, Village Voice Media boss Michael Lacey called Ortega up and offered him the job. Despite four editors' worth of turnover since January 2006, when New Times purchased the paper and took the Village Voice Media name, Ortega decided to accept.

"Why would I hesitate?" Ortega asked. "It's the Village Voice. It's a terrific newspaper with a storied past, and what journalist wouldn't want to do it?"

"I'm sure this will be criticized since I'm not a New Yorker," said Ortega. Ortega said he's looking forward to learning from the Voice's staff.

What about his relationship with Lacey, who's often accused of micromanaging the newspaper from Phoenix?

"I never really had that problem with him," said Ortega. "I've always had complete freedom to do what I wanted." Ortega has worked for Lacey at multiple New Times papers, most recently as the top editor at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

He will greet his new staff on Friday, Mar. 9.

"I'm a half-Mexican kid from L.A. without New York experience," Ortega said. "We'll just see."

-Michael Calderone

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