Village Voice: Runnin' Scared?
The Village Voices weekly news column, Runnin Scared, has been quietly dropped from the paper for two consecutive weeks, after a 15-month run in the Voices news pages.
This weeks Voice also failed to include the second part of [two-part series by reporter Graham Rayman] on Columbia professor Madonna Constantine, after promising readers in last weeks issue that it would appear. The second part of the Rayman article showed up this morning on the papers website.
The Runnin Scared column was re-launched by editor-in-chief Tony Ortega shortly after he took charge of the alt-weekly in March of 2007; the weekly news feature had been a mainstay of the Voice beginning in the 1970s.
Wayne Barrett, a longtime Village Voice staff writer and regular contributor to Runnin Scared, said he believes the columns absence isnt permanent. I would know if it was cut, Barrett said.
Responding via email to an inquiry from New York Press, Ortega wrote: Some weeks we run Runnin Scared, some weeks we dont. This week, because of the July 4 holiday, we only ran a 104-page paper, so we had to cut several things – news as well as culture pieces.
Youre still at 40 pages, right? I bet your editors also find that its difficult to get everything in. Look around. Everyone is running leaner papers in this difficult paper.
A follow-up email from Ortega one minute later offered a small clarification: I meant difficult time there at the end... he wrote.