‘The Village Voice’ ceasing its print edition

New York City alt-weekly mainstay The Village Voice has announced it is ceasing its print edition after 62 years. The news came today via a statement from Peter Barbey, who purchased the Voice in 2015:

For more than 60 years, the Village Voice brand has played an outsized role in American journalism, politics, and culture. It has been a beacon for progress and a literal voice for thousands of people whose identities, opinions, and ideas might otherwise have been unheard. I expect it to continue to be that and much, much more.

The Village Voice was founded in 1955 and became a free weekly in 1996. For years it was how many New Yorkers found apartments, and found out about upcoming shows. In 2005, The Village Voice was sold to New Times Media, who owned a bunch of similar alt-weeklies. That company was renamed Voice Media Group in 2013 who then sold off The Village Voice to Barbey who, at the time, had high hopes for keeping the print edition alive. In today's statement, Barbey says that The Voice will continue to report the news online:

The most powerful thing about the Voice wasn’t that it was printed on newsprint or that it came out every week. It was that The Village Voice was alive, and that it changed in step with and reflected the times and the ever-evolving world around it. I want The Village Voice brand to represent that for a new generation of people—and for generations to come.”