THE VOICE, THE PRESS, AND CONDE NAST. I’ll start with the good tidings and wish the Village Voice a very Happy 50th Anniversary. For the occasion, the paper put together a retrospective issue that you can probably still find on the streets. I’m still plowing through it, but I’m already delighted by how it takes me back and reminds me of some of my favorite (and least favorite) Voice moments. They’d include a Doonesbury cover (favorite), a Donna Minkowitz report on a feminist convention (favorite), Alisa Solomon’s coverage of the mistreatment of child refugees in the United States (favorite), Geoffrey Stokes’s Press Clips (favorite), Michael Musto’s column (favorite), Dan Savage’s column (favorite), Rachel Kramer Bussel’s column (favorite), some of those weird articles from the 1980s in which the journalists seemed more concerned with their masturbation techniques than their purported subjects (least favorite), and that time at work when I was having lunch and I opened the paper to find a Mapplethorpe photo in which a whip is inserted up someone’s ass (in a class by itself). And then there are the times when the Voice published my own work (yee-hah!). Whatever happens to the Voice as it changes owners yet again, I hope that there will always be places that encourage freewheeling and progressive journalism.



Which brings me to New York Press, the troubled weekly that, despite changes in editorship, consistently seduces me with some good writing and freaks me out with its puerility and inadequate fact-checking. Lately the rag's become duller to me, but I still enjoyed the literate sex advice column written by Judy “Dategirl” McGuire…who was “let go” about two weeks ago. The circumstances seem to have been pretty lousy, which saddens me because, judging from the quality of McGuire’s column, I would think she deserved to be treated with more respect. Anyway, McGuire maintains a blog of her own…and I wish her success in whatever she does next. I’ll miss her.

It might be said that McGuire got off easy compared to Andrew Krucoff, the talented freelancer who was recently banished from Condé Nast for the unpardonable crime of including an innocuous and widely circulated in-house memo in an email he sent to Gawker, which posted it on its website. When this outrage was discovered by the CN honchos, Krucoff didn’t get a warning or a wrist-slap or two weeks notice — he apparently lost his job right there on the spot.

Here’s the memo that cost Krucoff his job. As you can see, it’s not exactly The Pentagon Papers — it’s about as sensational as the cafeteria menu.

From: Brownell, Gary
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 1:57 PM
To: Conde Nast Publications-All; FP Fairchild; Parade - New York; Golf Digest Companies-All; Advance Magazine Group-All
Subject: Internet Access Unavailable

We are investigating the inability to access the Internet from several of our offices. We’ll keep you updated on the progress to restore it.

Gary

______________________________________
Gary J. Brownell
Executive Director - Information Systems & Technology
Condé Nast Publications
1440 Broadway
11th Floor
New York, NY 10018
P: 212.286.XXXX
F: 212.286.XXXX

Perhaps I don’t know the whole story, but from what I’ve read, the punishment doled out to Krucoff was not only extreme but inhumane. And of course it has to be hypocritical, making an example of a little guy when the higher-ups surely get away with all kinds of misbehavior (including this instance of mistreating Krucoff). After all, this is the same place where Vanity Fair editor Grayson Carter was somehow able to hold onto his job after accepting $100,000 from a movie producer for merely suggesting a movie idea.

Geez, people — have a heart!

Photos: David Marc Fischer