Voice Media Group (VMG) is an American privately held media company headquartered in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. VMG owns several newspaper publications across the country. These offerings extend across print, mobile and

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...

. VMG's current properties include ''

Denver Westword ''Westword'' is a free digital and print media publication based in Denver, Colorado. ''Westword'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue cir ...

'', ''

Phoenix New Times ''Phoenix New Times'' is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. ''New Times'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue ...

'', ''

Dallas Observer ''Dallas Observer'' is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The ''Observer'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circ ...

'', ''

Miami New Times The ''Miami New Times'' is a newspaper published in Miami, Florida, United States, and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered in Miami's Wynwood Art District. Overview It was acquired by Village Voic ...

'', and ''

Broward New Times ''New Times Broward-Palm Beach'' is a news website that until 2016 also published a weekly print newspaper; it is part of the Voice Media Group chain. The original paper split off from the '' Miami New Times'' in 1997, under the auspices of t ...

'', as well as a digital marketing agency V Digital Services.

History

VMG was founded in September 2012, when

Village Voice Media Village Voice Media or VVM is a newspaper company. It began in 1970 as a weekly alternative newspaper in Phoenix. The company, founded by Michael Lacey (editor) and Jim Larkin (publisher), was then known as New Times Inc. (NTI) and the publicati ...

executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars announced an agreement to purchase Village Voice Media's papers and web properties from their founders. The classified web site Backpage.com was not part of the sale. VMG launched the digital marketing agency V Digital Services in 2013. VDS works with VMG publications and partners around the country to offer digital marketing solutions including organic SEO, social media management, paid media, web development and programmatic and pay-per-click advertising. V Digital Services made Inc. magazine's “Inc. 500 list” of America's fastest-growing private companies in 2019, 2018 and 2017. While adding resources to VDS, Voice Media Group has made strategic divestments of some its newspaper properties. On May 6, 2015, VMG announced the sale of ''Minneapolis City Pages'' to

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

Media Co. In October 2015, VMG sold the Village Voice in New York City to Pennsylvania newspaper owner Peter Barbey. In October 2017, VMG sold LA Weekly to local owners; the next month, following devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, it announced that the

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

would cease print publication and transition to an online-only entity. In 2021, Voice Media Group sold the ''Houston Press'' to an anonymous buyer.

Awards

VMG's publications have won numerous national journalism awards, including the 2018 George Polk Award for immigration reporting at Phoenix New Times, 2017 Sigma Delta Chi Awards at both Miami New Times and Westword, and the 2014 George Polk Award for sports reporting at Miami New Times.

References

Newspaper companies of the United States Companies based in Denver {{US-publish-corp-stub