Alt-Press Reacts to ‘New Times‘/’VV‘ Merger: “When the news broke on Monday confirming the New Times/Village Voice merger — pending Justice Department approval — many in the alternative press held forth with strong opinions on the deal.

The (Seattle) Stranger‘s Dan Savage bats down the theory, raised in a New York Times article, that the purchase by the New Times may spell trouble for the ‘anti-establishment’ Voice and its siblings. Savage pointed out that the Village Voice‘s various owners have at one point or another included the following: investment bankers Goldman Sachs, Weisspeck & Greer, and Canadian Imperial; pet-food magnate and billionaire investor Leonard Stern; and the piece de resistance, ‘right wing whack-job’ Rupert Murdoch.

‘With its purchase by New Times, the VVM chain will be owned by a smaller, more anti-establishment corporation than it has been in years,’ Savage concluded.

Not so fast, says San Francisco Bay Guardian Editor and Publisher Bruce Brugmann, whose paper first reported on negotiations between the two companies back in May… [more]” (Editor & Publisher)