New York Post - March 14, 2006
BOSS AT VOICE IS AXED FOR LAX FACTS
By KEITH J. KELLY
The Village Voice has booted Managing Editor Doug Simmons one week after the cover story "Do You Want to Kiss Me" exploded in his face because the writer, Nick Sylvester, confessed he had fabricated the ending.
At the time, Simmons had suspended Sylvester but stopped short of axing him. "It would break my heart to fire him," Simmons told The Post.
Michael Lacey, the new editorial director of the Village Voice Media, apparently had no such concerns. He fired Simmons yesterday, shortly after meeting with senior editor Ward Harkavy and making him the acting editor.
Even before the Sylvester affair, many thought Simmons was a long shot to get the job on a permanent basis. Longtime Voice Editor-in-Chief Don Forst said in early December he planned to resign but stayed on board until the merger with New Times was completed in late January, and Simmons took over on an interim basis.
But when the new owners decided to run a help-wanted ad in the Voice, looking for a chief editor, Lacey had Simmons read it aloud to the staff. "The staff was horrified," said one source. "People felt very badly for him. It wasn't that he was loved by the staff, but it was a devil-that-you-know kind of situation."
Now insiders are scared and uncertain. Speculation is now turning on who will get the nod as the editor-in-chief. David Carr, a media columnist at the New York Times and former editor-in-chief of the Washington City Paper, had been approached by Lacey, but talks did not advance.
"I know him [Lacey] and we had a nice conversation about the editorial opportunity at the Village Voice, but it didn't involve me editing the paper," said Carr yesterday.