Village Voice To Return To Its Cooper Square Home

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The Village Voice will return to its longtime home in Cooper Square this year, where it will occupy a fragment of its former office as the legendary alt-weekly transitions to a smaller, digital-only future.

New York City's most iconic alternative news source announced that they would move offices to 36 Cooper Square, the building that still bears its masthead, in the spring. The Village Voice has been operating out of an office in the Financial District since 2013. The Real Deal first reported on the Voice's homecoming.

The Voice was headquartered at 36 Cooper Square for two decades, between 1991 and 2013. During that time, the historic publication transitioned from a Pulitzer Prize-winning magazine to a newsroom beset by financial woes and layoffs.

In August, the magazine announced that it would stop printing its signature publication: the free, weekly magazine available at iconic red boxes throughout the city. Shortly after, the company laid off 13 of 17 union employees. The smaller staff will take over a space of about 5,860 square feet of space in 36 Cooper Square, the company said.

"Greenwich Village is our spiritual home," Village Voice owner Peter Barbey said in a statement. "We’re back where we belong."

In addition to a shrinking staff and the death of its print magazine, the Voice has been subject to a number of leadership changes since Barbey purchased it in 2015. The Voice was founded in 1955 by Norman Mailer, Ed Fancer and Dan Wolf.

The paper has long been a staple of the New York journalism world, producing as many big stories and investigations as it has launched powerful journalistic careers. The end of its print publication was mourned by many as a final death knell for the iconic paper.

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