[quote]They also started charging for it for awhile, which ruined its populist nature. I remember how thick it once was but towards the end it was a shell of its former size.
You don't seem to know much about this paper's history. The Village Voice was never free until around 1996.
An excerpt of the article from The NY Times: Village Voice, Circulation Down, to Be Free to Manhattan Readers By Iver Peterson Feb. 8, 1996
"The Village Voice, which has delivered hip culture, contrarian politics and extensive apartment listings to New Yorkers for 41 years, will be given away free in Manhattan beginning in April as its owner strives to reverse a decline in circulation and advertising.
David Schneiderman, the weekly newspaper's publisher, said that the decision to eliminate the $1.25 price was a logical way to increase readership in a hurry.
Indeed, the publisher noted, The Voice has been giving away about 34,000 copies a week -- about one-fourth of its total circulation -- for some time on college campuses.
When the change begins, on April 10, The Voice will be distributed in restaurants, record stores, street boxes and other outlets in Manhattan. Outside of Manhattan it will still be sold on newsstands for $1.25. The owners predict that the plan, which was reported this week in The New York Observer, will increase the paper's circulation to 200,000 from 118,361 in September, the most recent figure available. In 1984, circulation was 151,109.
But some outsiders saw the decision to go the way of suburban shoppers and other alternative weeklies as evidence that months of experimentation with staff changes and editorial content have not solved The Voice's problems in keeping a solid readership.
The tabloid newspaper began to lose its near-monopoly on weekly cultural news and entertainment listings in the mid-1980's, with the arrival of The Observer, a 39,000-circulation broadsheet that sells for $1, and the 95,000-circulation New York Press, a tabloid that is distributed free. Last fall, a third competitor in the field, Time Out New York, a magazine selling for $1.95, entered the field.
n response, The Voice began producing New York Listings in October, a free weekly that provides cultural schedules and personal advertisements. The effort has not produced results, Mr. Schneiderman said yesterday, and New York Listings will cease publication soon, he said.
Over the last year, The Voice itself has dropped some prominent contributors, including Stan Mack, the eavesdropping cartoonist; has killed its sports section, and has hired a new editor, Karen Durbin, to move it toward a more mainstream readership.
Some of those changes have raised the hackles of longtime readers who fear that the paper is in danger of losing its edge in a quest for a broader circulation. At the same time, many baby boomers who formed The Voice's core audience have moved to the suburbs in recent years and left the paper behind. Despite the efforts to shore it up, paid circulation has continued to fall.
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