On Friday, Maura Johnston, the Village Voice’s music editor since January of last year, announced on Twitter and Facebook that she’s leaving the paper. She told the New York Times that “the decision to leave was not mine.”
In an unrelated development, longtime editor Tony Ortega is also leaving the paper.
When Johnston — a social-media-savvy music critic who made her name at Idolator in the mid-2000s – took over the Voice’s music editor post from Rob Harvilla, the move was widely seen as a positive one for the paper – one that would carry on its legacy of intelligent, bold commentary. Her coverage, particularly the articles she wrote herself, has been solid and lively.
But the online world is a numbers game, one she told the Times she wasn’t interested in engaging.
Trending on Billboard
“I prefer to analyze the ways that people migrate to certain pieces of content rather than engaging it myself,” she said. “I guess doing it gets more traffic than looking at it from a critical point of view.”
Last week, Village Voice Media appointed LA Weekly music editor Ben Westhoff to oversee music coverage for its weeklies, and Johnston’s departure is generally considered to be related to that development. At press time, Johnston’s successor had not yet been named.