

Scott, co-chief critic of The New York Times, said in an e-mail that many critics had gotten the gate in the last few years, but the loss of Mr.
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“I think I was caught in a number of shifts: the decline in movie criticism, which has been under way for quite some time, the crisis in journalism in general, and the changes in Hollywood,” he said.Ī.O. Hoberman, who expressed no regrets in an e-mail to his colleagues, said that the loss of his job was bigger than he was and that you couldn’t stop what’s coming. (Roger Ebert blames the rise of celebrity culture for the loss of movie criticism.)

Other newspapers, pressed by declining circulation and ad flight, have also taken aim at those who point their thumbs up or down on the Is supposed to look like, and it is clear that didn’t place a lot of value on film criticism.” “They have a template for what the newspaper “This is part of a process that began in the late ’90s at The Voice and has greatly accelerated since the New Times people bought it,” he said. Hoberman said he had felt like the “The Last of the Mohicans” at The Voice. Preferring to rely on his knowledge of film history and the intelligence of his audience to annotate the movies of any given week. Hoberman, who contributes to The New York Times, was the opposite of the glib, blurb-cranking film critic, It’s just become part of dealing with the economics that many papers face, including ours.” “It’s been years since we wereĭone letting go of people who weren’t incredible qualified. “Everybody in our business knows it’s been a tough three years,” said Mr. Hoberman was some kind of opportunity, saying the continued economic headwinds for newspapers necessitated significant budget cuts. Ortega did not pretend that the loss of Mr. The services of many seasoned members of the staff.

In 2009, the chain sold The Nashville Scene.Īlthough Tony Ortega, the editor of The Village Voice, has managed to restore some of the news aggression the newspaper was known for and has made progress in establishing a daily Web presence, he has done so without Some of the chain’s 13 weeklies continue to thrive, but the company has suffered legal setbacks and continued business challenges. It has been a visible struggle, most recently when the chain’s, an national online classified site, came under attack when critics said that it enabled prostitution, including the selling of minors for sex. What then became Village Voice Media was formed in the belief that a combined group of weeklies could use a national advertisingĪpproach to resist the broader economic tide. But like many weeklies - and newspapers in general - The Voice came under significantįinancial pressure in the last decade as the print business faltered in the competition with the Web over advertising dollars.īelt-tightening has become an almost annual ritual at the weekly after The Voice, along with other publications, was bought bought by New Times, a chain of weeklies. Hoberman’s departure is yet another instance of a critic leaving the ranks of full-time movie criticism, a trend that has been like the unfolding of a large, slow-moving disaster movie.įor many years, The Voice had a cultural reach beyond New York, setting an agenda in music, film and arts criticism. He joins a list of longtime Voice writers who have been laid off. Yet another instance of the The Voice taking aim at a veteran - and presumably well paid - employee. On Wednesday, two long-running trends in journalism came together in a single layoff: Jim Hoberman, a senior film critic at the Village Voice since 1988, was let go,
