History
The company was previously named New Times Media. On October 24, 2005, New Times Media announced a deal to acquire Village Voice Media, creating a chain of 17 free weekly newspapers around the country with a combined circulation of 1.8 million. After the deal's completion, New Times assumed the Village Voice Media name.
In 2002, the previous Village Voice Media had entered into a noncompetition agreement with New Times Media, another national publisher of alternative weeklies, whereby the two companies agreed to stop publishing New Times LA (a product of New Times Media) and Cleveland Free Times (a product of Village Voice Media), so that the companies would not publish two, competing newspapers in any single city. This agreement and phasing out of the two newspapers, led to an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation resulted in a settlement, requiring the companies to sell off assets and the old newspapers' titles to any potential competitors.
In October 2007, Michael Lacey, the executive editor, and Jim Larkin, the chief executive, of Village Voice Media, were arrested in Phoenix on charges that a Village Voice Media publication, the Phoenix New Times, had published secret grand jury information. A state special prosecutor was investigating the newspaper's long-running feud with Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, including the publishing of Arpaio's home address, a crime under Arizona law. The special prosecutor's subpoena included a demand for the names of the readers of the New Times's website. It was the information about the subpoena which was deemed by prosecutors to be secret grand jury information.
Until 2012, Goldman Sachs owned 16% of Village Voice Media, but sold its shares soon after Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times publicized the fact and began asking them questions about its stake. According to the bank, they "had no influence over operations,” of their asset.
In 2012, Village Voice Media owners sold the papers and their web properties to a group of longtime executives, leaving the online classifieds site Backpage in control of shareholders Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin. In talking about the advertiser controversies, the CEO of the new newspaper firm said, "Backpage has been a distraction - there's no question about it - to the core (editorial) properties." Executives for the spinoff holding company, called Voice Media Group and based in Denver, raised "some money from private investors" in order to separate the newspapers.
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