Mediagazer: ‘Observer’ ropes old talent (Cynthia Cotts, George Gurley, Nina Burleigh) and new into its bullpen (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

2:35 PM ET, September 24, 2012

Top News:

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Village Voice Media Execs Acquire The Company's Famed Alt Weeklies, Form New Holding Company — A group of long-running alternative weekly newspapers is changing hands. Village Voice Media Holdings — whose titles include the LA Weekly, Westword, and, yes, the Village Voice …

Discussion: Arizona Republic, PR Newswire, The Latest Word, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Poynter, The Corsair, The Wrap, NetNewsCheck Latest, @tromano, Street Fight, Navel Gazing, AAN and Guardian

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Village Voice spins off Backpage.com — New York's iconic Village Voice and a dozen other weekly newspapers are parting ways with Backpage, a controversial classified site tied to alleged sex trafficking. The split will result in the creation of a new ownership group that is focused solely on news and events.

Discussion: New York Post, New York Magazine, Deadline.com, Big News Network.com and NYConvergence.com

Mallory Russell / AdAge:

Village Voice Management Buyout Leaves Backpage.com Behind — The Move Rids Management of a Headache, Takes Away Leverage for Critics — A group of Village Voice Media's senior managers has agreed to buy from its current ownership the print publications and digital properties — with the notable exclusion of Backpage.com.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, FishbowlNY and The Raw Story

David Carr / New York Times:

Covering the World of Business, Digital Only — Business titans are generally not prone to self-appraisal, and when they do take stock, it usually begins and ends with a list of their conquests. — David G. Bradley, the owner of Atlantic Media, has never been like that.

Discussion: paidContent, FishbowlNY, LA Observed, WordPress.com VIP, Mashable!, @zseward, @blakehounshell and PandoDaily

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Quartz Shoots for Tablet and Mobile Readers, but Doesn't Arm Itself With an App — After a summer of buzz, Quartz, Atlantic Media's new business news site, lights up today. — Pro Tip 1: If you want to see what the fuss is about, head over to qz.com, not quartz.com.

Discussion: @laureni and Talking Biz News

BuzzFeed:

Hillary Clinton Aide Tells Reporter To “F**k Off” And “Have A Nice Life” — On Sunday morning, BuzzFeed correspondent Michael Hastings emailed Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton's longtime aide and personal spokesman at the State Department, asking a series of pointed questions about State's handling …

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Guardian, @johnjcook and nation.foxnews.com

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Exit interview: Brisbane says New York Times Public Editor job is ‘not a conversation’ — Arthur Brisbane's New York Times email address has been shut off, and he sounds pretty happy about it. — “I'm trying to decompress,” he told me two days after his stint as the fourth public editor of The New York Times came to an end.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

A broadband levy to fund journalism? Now that's a very clever idea — Has David Leigh cracked it? We have been puzzling for years about how to subsidise journalism once it makes the final transition from print to net (see here and here and here). One obvious model is the funding of the BBC through its licence fee.

Discussion: @digidickinson and AndyDickinson.net

Paul Carr / PandoDaily:
Taxing Broadband to Save Journalism is One Big, Stupid Idea. We Need a Thousand Small, Smart Ones

Discussion: Charlie Beckett and Forbes

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Guardian's chief investigator wants ISP tax to fund journalism

Discussion: GigaOM, Telegraph, on, The Wall Blog, Guardian, NetNewsCheck Latest, @brokenbottleboy, @benedictevans, @willardfoxton, @onthemedia, @brokenbottleboy and Media Week

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Homicide Watch DC wins Online Journalism Award for public service — Crime reporting site Homicide Watch DC, which recently crowdfunded more than $40,000 to secure its survival through the creation of a student reporting lab, was named as one of the winners of the Online Journalism Awards at the weekend.

Discussion: MediaShift and Big News Network.com

Sherrina V. Navani / The Trentonian:
The Trentonian unveils Homicide Watch

Discussion: Digital First Media

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Observer’ ropes old talent (Cynthia Cotts, George Gurley, Nina Burleigh) and new into its bullpen — Following a string of recent staff departures, recently-installed New York Observer editor Aaron Gell has announced some new talent grabs. — We'll start with Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Cablevision Tells Aereo to Get Off Its Team — If Aereo, the start-up that lets you watch Web TV on tablets and phones, wins its court case, it could be a big deal for pay TV companies. — That's because Aereo doesn't pay broadcast networks for their programming, and the cable guys do.

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Operation Elveden: senior Met officer DCI April Casburn charged — A police officer has been charged with misconduct in public office after allegedly contacting the now-defunct News of the World with information, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced.