We know. It's a little difficult to get excited over a new Village Voice editor. They come and go as quickly as the men in a Candace Bushnell novel, always leaving us before we even have a chance to read an editor's letter.

Which sort of makes today's announcement a bit tough to cream over — though we'll tell you about it anyway. David Blum (formerly of Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, Esquire, and the New York Times Magazine) will be taking the job fratty DC boy Erik Wemple walked out on — editor in chief of the Village Voice.

Blum may have a little more promise as a leader of the city's most well-known alt-weekly. He's a New Yorker, he's worked for NYC pubs … and he wants to reach out and touch you.

"I'm honored to lead an institution as vibrant and as essential to New York City life as the Voice. I want New Yorkers to read the Voice, and to be moved, entertained, amused, confronted and compelled by what it has to say."

Well, we're already pretty amused and entertained by the paper as of now (the place is a friggin' circus). But we are hopeful this EIC will stay. Hey, at least he wants people to read his paper — that's a great start!

David Blum Named New Village Voice Editor [Rachel Sklar, Eat the Press]

The past six months at the Seattle Weekly have encompassed a mass exodus of staffers — including the publisher, advertising director, production director, design director, music editor, and multiple writers. Most recently, the paper's EIC Knute "Skip" Berger left the Weekly high and dry as well.

Staffers, naturally, fear the corporate changes that new ownership under Village Voice Media (or, previously known as New Times Media until they company bought the Voice) would bring. Their greatest concerns, obviously, are trying to leave before they are potentially axed … and before their newspaper faces the tragic fate of resembling anything close to the Village Voice.

The company already has begun to shake up New York's venerable Village Voice, another recent acquisition, touching off a staff revolt that has attracted national notice. Some longtime staff members there have been fired.

It's only a matter of time, several observers say, before the company begins to recast Seattle Weekly in its image as well.

And being recreated in any other pub's image (especially the Voice's) is any big city's paper biggest fear.

Uncertain times at Seattle Weekly [Eric Pryne, Seattle Times]

Anyone who gets Jim Romensko to use the words "pull a Wemple" on his site is automatically our favorite person for at least a day. Which makes Bob Norman our favorite person of the day.

He is reporting that Sean Gardiner, a former Newsday reporter, is leaving Fourt Lauderdales' Sun-Sentinel to join the Village Voice as a reporter. And it doesn't look like he's going to bail out. Besides the free baby-sitting and corn beef sandwiches, there is something actually journalism related drawing him to this new job.

The basic reason I’m going to the Voice is because I’m a dinosaur, at least as far as the daily newspaper business goes. My strength is what I now hear called “long form journalism” (we used to just call it reporting out a story).

And in a true example of this ancient, rare form of writing about thoroughly investigated and "reported out" stories, Gardiner sheds some insight into the current situation at the alt weekly.

I’ve read about some of the stuff going on at the Voice. However it shakes out I look forward to working there. It appears to be the perfect job for me.

Wow. The New York Observer and Vanity Fair better watch out.

Sun-Sentinel Writer Headed to Village Voice [Daily Pulp]

When Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple left D.C to lead the staff of the Village Voice to glory, things started looking up for the alt weekly. Then, mysteriously, suddenly, Wemple totally peaced on the staff. A difference of opinion regarding "newsroom direction" was sited as the issue which broke the deal. Today, Fishbowl New York has uncovered a few other reasons.

Why, just one month before his scheduled start date and three days after his big ol' staff meeting, did Wemple leave?

One theory making the media rounds is that executives at the Voice refused to disclose the editorial budget to Wemple, and that he'd have to fire a specific staffer.

Other reasons include: Mike Lacey is crazy, Wemple missed his frat boys, and he realized he wouldn't be making enough to afford an apartment on the island.

Did the Voice Refuse to Show Wemple the Money? [Fishbowl NY, Mediabistro]

Aw, man. Remember how we were all so excited that somebody wanted the Village Voice? When Erik Wemple was announced as the new editor in chief, he was the first to take over the paper as it entered the new regime. And now, he's quit — as the story declares — before he could even start.

Apparently the issue was "newsroom direction" and something about straddling too many ponies. After a 90 minute speech to the VV staff, and a bunch of blogging about his arrival, Wemple decided that he and Mike Lacey weren't really going to get along too well. (We have a feeling this Lacey guy is growing to be the next Jann Wenner.)

Plus, the Washington City Paper gave Wemple his old job back, so he can happily return to frat boy town. We're not surprised the Village, with all its poetry cafes and grimy bars was not the ideal Wemple stopping grounds … but his departure is more or less shocking.

Press Release after the jump.

CONTINUED »

• Our lives now officially have purpose. Our savior is born.

• This week it was 'EIC this' and 'EIC that.' Honestly, nobody actually knew who these people were until they got fired. Or hired. Or went to the beach.

• We can not leave our un-airconditioned apartment without Richard Johnson getting a DUI and making us come back and report on it.

• Anna Nicole Smith is reproducing. Well, did you really think the devil would be far behind?

• It would totally suck going to high school with these people.

• Yes, Katie Couric is gone. She's really, really, really gone. And everyone cried and sung songs about colonoscopies. And then, she bought a house. Go for it Katie!

Today seems to be the day for announcing the arrival of new things. We have a new name for a Conde mag, a baby announcement from Anna Nicole Smith (oh, we'll get there) and now the announcement of a new Village Voice editor in chief.

His name is Erik Wemple, he is not a New Yorker, and he is set to start next month. Though he acknowledges readers will have to "get over" his status as a Washington reporter (Wemple spent his entire career at Washington's City Paper) his boss man Mike Lacey says he's "a really smart guy," so we guess that's all we really need to assure us.

Wemple may need more assuring than his readers do, however. According to the New York Times, these "attitude-filled blogs" (god save us from "snarky") pose quite a threat the the existence of the Voice.

Mr. Wemple, who will start his new job in July (Ward Harkavy has been interim editor), walks into a chaotic newsroom buffeted by the changes that have hit all alternative weeklies, including the spread of attitude-filled blogs and online magazines and free classified advertisements on the Web.

So, be a good neighbor everyone, and welcome your new alt weekly editor to the neighborhood. Next time your stalking Adrian Grenier on Lafayette St, it wouldn't kill you to stop by the VV office and say what up.

Washington Journalist to Edit The Village Voice [Motoko Rich, New York Times]

What could be better than a media discussion between David Carr, Bob Garfield, and Mike Lacey? Ok, fine, just about everything. But you can actually listen to this one … just in case you missed it (as we did) when it aired May 5.

But it is always fun to watch people fumble around for overly analytical answers to why just about everybody quit the Village Voice when Lacey took over. What we've extrapolated is that he was an extremely demanding boss with these crazy expectations of what is the most important thing about working at a newspaper and running a newsroom.

I said you need to pick up the phone and interview people. I want you to do fundamental reporting and not simply riffing about what had occurred to you that day. And apparently, that was too much to expect.

And when half the ex staffers flee to Rolling Stone, where the tasks of reporting is secondary to the tasks of keeping your desk clean and re-writing your reviews to compliment FOJs (Friends of Jann's) they will finally have found their place.

Alt-Upheaval [On the Media via Romenesko]

• Katie Couric may be the perkiest of them all, but that still doesn't get her a Pulitzer.

• Aaron Hicklin is in at Out, where the top requirement is being hot. This could be why Scott McClellan is just plain out.

• The Village Voice went through more changes than MSNBC and Hearst combined.

• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes shock the world by having a real baby — no aliens, beach balls, Greirs, or boys — just a real baby girl named Suri, which stands for something or other … our favorite being "Party".

• And while Jared Paul Stern lost the bloggers, the New York Times lost its website, Julia Roberts lost the critics, Pete Doherty temporarily lost his buzz, and Page Six"lost" its freelancers.

• Bonnie Fuller manages not to ask us for coffee or punch us in the face at her book party. And she wants Angelina Jolie's baby real bad.

We can barely keep track of the comings and goings (mostly the goings) over at the Village Voice. Besides Robert Christgau, music editor Chuck Eddy has also left the Village.

The Observer weighs in on the state of the traditionally leftist paper, highlighting new EIC Mike Lacey's attempt at a complete overhaul.

As the dissident Voice staff tells it, the new management is a bunch of out-of-town bean counters bent on dismantling a precious 50-year-old journalistic institution. The new management, in turn, depicts the paper as a haven for thumb-suckers, with a staff so self-satisfied that it refuses to stop writing left-leaning commentary and go out and do some reporting.

Meanwhile, Fox News (please don't start aggressively e-mailing — we were blindly led there by David Hirschman) tries to add some balance to the coverage by throwing in their hip, urban touch:

It's not like anyone reads the Village Voice or cares about it anymore. It was destroyed years ago, like most of what we used to call "the Village."

Sadly, we realize that Fox is right (as in correct, not conservative). As much time as everyone spends gossiping about the Voice, a delicate few still actually pick it up and read it.

However, last time we checked, "the Village" itself was still there.

Maybe it would help if the area was marked by "Village" garbage bags (y'know like the ones NoHo has) so the good people at Fox and the tourists who ask "where's Greenwich Village?" while walking up Laguardia Place won't get confused.

Can Village Voice Make It Without Its Lefty Zetz? [Gabriel Sherman, New York Observer]

• Exactly 11 people, and four blogs, await the announcement of the Village Voice's new editor. [NYT]

• It was probably Robin Givhan's appearance on the Colbert Report that locked up the Pulitzer for her. [WWD]

• One day soon, Superman will wash his tights in Tide. [WSJ]

• How a Chronicle of Higher Education article about university profs delivering soundbites for the media gets printed without a Robert Thompson mention baffles us. [TCOHE]

• Blogs and Internet pundits, like TV pundits just a few years ago, wield a "disproportionately large influence" on society, says new research. Also, according to new research, "Blah, blah, blah." [Guardian]

• Judging by its' latest cover, it seems The New Republic desperately needs a lesson in subtlety. [Media Mob]

• Madonna has lots of needs for her upcoming tour, including free tickets for her broke ass celebrity friends. [R&M]

• Paula Abdul wasn't just drunk on American Idol this week, she got some painkillers to boot. We look forward to that particular brand of Paula crazy. [MSNBC]

• The Rolling Stones aren't angry that they are being censored for an upcoming show in China. Nobody can understand what the fuck Mick Jagger is singing under all that huffing anyway. [AP]

• Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer of American Idol, passes Lindsay Lohan's age-old wisdom on to the Idol contestants — breathe. Yay, group tattoo field trip! [MTV]

• The Sufjan Stevens/Rosie Thomas baby was just a prank on Pitchfork Media. Of course a former employer of Nick Sylvester wouldn't bother to fact check their news. [Pitchfork Media]

Though this was the week in which many Time Inc. and AMI staffers were forced out of jobs, it is important to remember that the media industry is still full of people who quit their jobs.

And since people are never happier for their co-workers than when they finally decide to break out of the hell hole that has become their lives, we would love to give a shout out to the following industry insiders who have chosen to break free. (Not to mention freeing up some jobs for the rest of y'all.)

• Katie Couric left NBC. [As reported everywhere except the moon]

• Stephanie Leifer left the fun job of "comedy developer" at ABC. Yeah, good luck to the next person who lands that one. [Mediaweek]

• Nancy Sidewater left her position as managing editor of Time Out New York. [Gawker]

• Gregg LaGambina stepped down from his position as editor Filter magazine. [Fishbowl NY]

• Time correspondent Viveca Novak is one of the few who took a buy-out from Jim Kelly and "voluntarily left." [NYO]

• And the Village Voice investigative reporter Jennifer Gonnerman has left to, what else, write a book. [NYO]

Did you jump ship before your boss handed you a plastic bag? Is your cube mate finally putting down the Voodoo doll of Jann Wenner? Let us know. We've quit the service industry, but we still love tips — nobody's paying us not to gossip.

Update: E.J. Kessler, political reporter for The Forward will be joining the New York Post. After Passover, of course. [The Forward]

• Welcome Room 8, yet another blog about New York (this one's about politics!). It's from the New York Observer's Ben Smith, because even reporters with blogs need blogs. [Room Eight]

• Congrats to the Village Voice, who won some media crit award from Penn State. [VV]

• When it comes to crazies, Rod Stewart has had his fair share — but he hasn't met Paula Abdul yet. [MoreCoversationsWithFamousPeople]

• Movies with George Clooney and Brad Pitt as thieves should never end. Too bad script writers couldn't find spots for Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones, even with all those extra "get more" minutes. [AP]

• The Today show might have awkward sexual tension, but it doesn't have awkward tit jealousy like The View. [Lowdown]

• Here's something Katie Holmes has to look forward to: During his divorce from Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise tapped her phones. And she knew about it. [A Socialite's Life]

• Nicole Richie gets new hair, keeps the same old story [Hollywood Rag]

• Keira Knightly puts the class back in turning 21 — with a 1920s-themed bash in London. [3am]

• How do TV networks hang on to their viewers? By killing off main characters. (We really hope this means Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy will die soon.) [NYT]

• In his very serious court battle, we find out that Dan Brown does not have the only book store in New Hampshire [NYT]

• Why do we need bloggers? Because the press is too lazy to pick up stories on Fridays. [Slate]

• Mike Lacey doesn't just fire his staffers — he tortures them in front of his staff first. [NYP]

• By insisting he wants less media attention, the press flock to Nick Denton. Shocking how that worked out. [WWD]

As the fallout from the Village Voice post-Nick Sylvester's fabricated front page story comes to a boil, we wanted to make sure you knew how to tackle this story from all angles. Presented herewith, a headline round-up of all things EIC Doug Simmons will get shit for.

• Ex-’Poon Editor Caught in Scandal
• Breaking: Doug Simmons Is Still the Acting ‘Voice’ Editor
• Voice Suspends Author of Cover Story After Fabrications Are Discovered
• Village Voice Writer Caught Making Up Stuff
• Paper suspends editor
• WRITER THROWS HIS VOICE

Surely you can guess which one's our favorite.

• Listen, MySpace Tom. You don't have so many friends because people like you. So just stop trying to push your crappy MySpace CD. [Digital Music News]

• Some blogs are offering entire albums for download, and the Village Voice is not amused. Don't you guys have better things to research? Uh, like your articles, maybe? [VV]

• Atlanta rapper T.I. is starring in a movie of his own coming of age story. Now, we're just guessing here, but any chance it might involve surmounting some impossible adversity and ending up massively famous? [MTV]

• Scott Stapp feels that "someone" is out to get him over this sex tape video. However, he does not immediately blame this "god" he used to spend so much time singing about. Or himself, of course. [E!]

• By changes to the Village Voice, did Mike Lacey mean, "make shit up?" [Gawker]

• Today in Conde cafeteria conundrums: Will vogue.com ever be free of style.com? Tomorrow: Will Fairchild ever be free of Conde Nast? [WWD]

• After his tireless research and reporting on the JT Leroy circus, The Weinstein Company has decided to option Warren St. John's harrowing tales. And the New York Times will probably keep the check. [Page Six]

• When Jack Shafer claims to be sincere, and we believe him, the world sort of feels like it stopped spinning for just a second. [Slate]

• NYU kids weigh in on blogs … well, newspaper blogs, at least. [Press Think]

All hail the Musto. We can think of no other New York gossip who has had as powerful an influence on this meta clusterfuck of an industry.

Well, our lovely neighbors to the north, the Canadians, heart Michael Musto, too. And they can really pick up on those hidden subtleties in his writing. Hence the Toronto Star's apt observation, "His column has a gay subtext."

Wow, did Musto realize that other people could pick up on that tone he works so hard at burying? (Emphasis ours.)

"When I realized I could write politics, fashion, celebrity and be openly gay about it I thought, `Wow, I can make a living out of it.'"

Oh, we guess he did. This must have prompted the reporter on this story to realize, "wow, I can prove my talent for picking up on the secret gayness of the Village Voice and enforce stereotypes of oblivious Canadians in one shot."

The Hunter S. Thompson of snark [Rita Zekas, Toronto Star]

When new Village Voice owner Mike Lacey asked staffers to shut up about President Bush, and just try to be less boring, at least one staffer was paying attention.

Elizabeth Zimmer's piece Sex in the First Person, Dirty Girls is not only majorly grossing us out but also strangely begging us to read the actual article.

And you thought Angelina Jolie's was the only crack you were gonna see today.

Merger mania, Lacey to Voice staff: Drop dead [Tim Redmond, SFBC]
Dirty Girls [Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice]