Village Voice to undergo over $1M relaunch

Village Voice owner Peter Barbey said that in 2017 he will spend $1 million-plus on a digital and print relaunch of the granddaddy of alternative weeklies — but had no prediction on when the publication could stem the flow of r♎ed ink and return to profitability.

“It will be a major, major redo,” said Barbey. “It could cost around $1 m🌼ilꩵlion to $1 million-plus when all is said and done.”

A new, glossy national publication could be added, sources said, although Barbey refused to address the ru𓆉mors.

The redesign wiꦇll be unveiled sometime in 2017. Again, Barbey declined to be pinned down on exactly when.

Paul Ford, a respected coder and Web design𒅌er and co-founder of Postlight, has already been hired to oversee the digital and print 🀅overhaul.

On Tuesday, Barbey appointed Stephen Mooallem, most recently an executive editor at Harper’s Bazaar, as the new editor-in-chief, fueling speculation that the title is going away from investigative journalism and more toward life🍬style.

Including Tom Finkel, the editor Barbey inherited when he took over the publication from Voice Media Group 14 months ago, Mooallem marks the fourth editor — Joe Levy, a past editor of Billboard, Spin and Rolling Stone, and Will Bourne, who was axed after only eight months o𓆏n the job, round out the list.

Bourne had clashed with Publisher Suzan Gursoy, sources sa𝔉id. In the latest shuffle, she🐽 was elevated to chief operating officer.

Barbey,🦋 scꦕion of a Pennsylvania newspaper family, said when he took over the paper, he hoped to restore it to its past glory. He said he has roughly doubled the editorial staff to around 40 people since the takeover.

The free print title’s circulat🎐ion, once as high as 250,000, had dropped to 80,000 before Barbey took ov✱er. It has increased to 120,000, he said.

Barbey said he hopes to br💎ing mor꧅e women readers into the mix.