Hey did you read that Jon Caramanica article on Carly Rae Jepsen for the NY Times? Good article. Really good.
Maura Johnston left the Village Voice. She had this to say on her way out the door:
She also embodied The Voice’s tradition of thoughtful cultural criticism, and resisted the kinds of light, easily consumable items, like Top 10 lists and photo compilations, that tend to draw the most traffic online.
Giving in to “the Darwinistic page-view coverage of anything,” she said, “is damaging to culture as a whole.”
It was unclear on Friday who would take her place. Last week, Village Voice Media appointed Ben Westhoff, the music editor of LA Weekly, to oversee music coverage for the company’s weekly newspapers, and Ms. Johnston’s dismissal was widely seen as a result of a power struggle over the direction of that coverage. (NYTIMES)
My guess is that we are going to see a lot more "listicles" in the Village Voice. Giving in to the Darwinistic page-view coverage of anything is damaging to the culture as a whole. So is gossip and celebrity focused blogging. That is some sick shit.
My observation is that Maura's downfall is that it was linked to her inability to give a persuasive "anti-Darwinist" approach that still embraced SEO, Analytic and all that jazz that she understands and hates. without being tacky about it. Personally, I think the weakness of the free weekly approach to music at this moment when it comes to music coverage (this is not a Village Voice specific observation) is that they are powerless to establish individual acts as Categories/SEO terms a la a Pitchfork or Stereogum because they don't have the attention span required to stay with a single Artist.
Boo to the Village Voice.
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