Are we surprised that yet another historically print-based newspaper bites the dust?

To live in NYC is to embrace the omnipresent corner newspaper dispenser, but at least one classic publication won't be on your block any longer. And for New Yorkers, it's a biggie.

In the end of an era, the iconic alt-weekly Village Voice is permanently ending production of its print edition. 

After over six decades as NYC's local source of progressive politics, social culture, and the arts, the Voice is shifting focus to online content.

Could Norman Mailer and friends imagined the Voice would become an online brand when they launched the paper in 1955 from a second-story Greenwich Village walk-up for 10K? 

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In the years since, the Village Voice became a fixture for hard-hitting investigative reporting and sharp cultural criticism. The alt-weekly has won three Pulitzer Prizes, and launched many careers. The Voice says they're simply following their young, digitally savvy audience to the platform where it can best reach them. 

Because let's be real, we're sad, but when was the last time you picked up a print copy of the voice?

It's a change many print publications are making in the struggle to profit from digital advertising. The Voice used to rely on classified ads to pay the bills. But in 1996, when the Village Voice converted into a free weekly, Craigslist was in its infancy, and Google and Facebook didn't exist. 

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Ironically, the Internet now represents the paper's future.

Peter Barbey, who purchased the Voice in 2015, made the final decision. And don't worry about snagging that last copy -- no date is set for the final print edition just yet.

[via HollywoodReporter] [Feature Image Courtesy The Nation] 

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