The editor in chief of The Village Voice, the alternative weekly, resigned yesterday, less than two months after the newspaper's parent company, Village Voice Media, was acquired by New Times Media.
Don Forst, 73, said his departure, effective Dec. 31, is unrelated to the acquisition, which was announced the same week as the 50th anniversary of The Voice.
"I've been here nine years and I just thought I would look around and examine other possibilities," Mr. Forst said yesterday. Mr. Forst said it was premature to comment on his next job, but he said he hoped to continue as an editor.
In an e-mail message to staff members yesterday, Mr. Forst said, "A number of prospects have presented themselves and I think this is an opportune time to explore them."
Judith Miszner, the publisher of the 250,000-circulation Village Voice, could not be reached for comment. She appointed Doug Simmons, the paper's current managing editor, to be the acting editor after Mr. Forst's departure. In a separate e-mail message to the staff, she said, "Don has held The Voice to the highest levels of professionalism and journalistic integrity."
New Times Media, which owns 11 alternative newspapers, announced in October that it would acquire Village Voice Media, creating a chain of free weekly newspapers with a combined circulation of 1.8 million. The newspapers under the combined company, to be called Village Voice Media, are to include LA Weekly, SF Weekly, Miami New Times, Houston Press and The Dallas Observer.
Village Voice Media and New Times Media announced last week that the Department of Justice had cleared the merger, which is expected to close early in 2006.
Mr. Forst joined The Village Voice as editor in chief in October 1996, after a career that included being a reporter at The Burlington Free Press and managing editor of Newsday. During his tenure at Newsday, the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for 2000.
Mr. Forst said he hoped his legacy would be that he "came to The Village Voice, which is a very good paper, and I think I made it an even better one."
