Bye Bye Blum

Things were getting a little quiet over at The Village Voice, but now they've gone and started a racket again by firing their new editor, David Blum. At first watching the decline of the paper was somewhat amusing, but now it's just getting sad.

At a meeting on Wednesday there were staff members that argued about the lack of racial diversity amongst the employees. This was promptly followed by two staffers mentioning Mr. Blum making several comments that "some found offensive". Even these two staffers are surprised their remarks led to his firing:

“There were disagreements about the amount of emphasis he had given so far to hiring minorities,” one person said. “There was nothing said in that meeting by David Blum that was racist.”

Apparently the Voice's management had previous concerns about Blum, however, with a list of similar complaints this appeared to be the final straw. Wax nostalgic and read his welcoming press release at Huffington Post (where he's also a contributer), that was written just last September. In it, executive editor Michael Lacey states, "The Voice's readers and writers will find a great collaborator and a smart leader in David Blum. He is one of us." Turns out, not so much.

The Times provides a timeline of recent past editors of the paper: "The Voice has had four editors in little more than a year, beginning with Don Forst’s resignation in December 2005. His replacement, Doug Simmons, was fired in March after a reporter was found to have fabricated parts of an article. Erik Wemple, the editor of Washington City Paper, was hired in June, but resigned two weeks later. Mr. Blum began in September." They also mention that Bill Jensen will take over in the interim, "Bill Jensen, the director of new media for Village Voice Media and a former editor of the Boston Phoenix, will serve as interim editor in chief."