Raising Our Voice on the East Coast NCB Partners with The Village Voice in Promoting AC 2005
By Tad Wilkes
The Village Voice has been the standard bearer for the
alternative weekly publications. Certainly, the Voice is the template
on which the alternative weekly paper in your market is based. The New
York incarnation of The Village Voice is perhaps the most famous in the nation, and the company publishes in several other urban markets as well.
The bar-goer’s guide to the nightlife universe, then, was the logical media partner when Nightclub & Bar — the industry’s trade resource — began spreading word about its upcoming shows in Atlantic City (AC 2005) and Las Vegas.
“Our readership is so connected to the bar and club scene,” says Jim
Wolf, senior vice president of advertising for Village Voice Media.
“Our readership scores are just off the charts for all our publications
when it comes to indexing against people who attend bars and
nightclubs. Our audience is all about young urban adults.
“When you move into a city environment, and you’re really looking to
connect with the city itself, you typically will look to an alternative
weekly to do that,” Wolf says. “We operate the largest and most
successful alternative weeklies in the most successful markets,
especially New York and Los Angeles.”
So, partnering with Nightclub & Bar just makes sense, Wolf says.
“It’s the perfect fit. In many respects, we’re almost a vertical
publication for the industry. There’s a social/political commentary
side of our paper, which is really what got us going. But through the
years as we became more woven with the fabric of the city, our ability
to report on the real nuances of the entertainment and cultural scene
really is something. We’re not out there promoting the mainstream.
We’re really promoting the type of groups and clubs that really give
the city its special flavor.”
The Voice’s coverage of AC 2005 will add to the attention
Atlantic City is getting for its virtual rebirth in recent years.
“Atlantic City is right down the road from the largest metropolitan
area in the country, so it’s a great opportunity for Atlantic City,”
Wolf says.
The Village Voice was founded by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and Norman
Mailer in October of 1955, introducing free-form, high-spirited and
passionate journalism into the public discourse. As the nation’s first
and largest alternative newsweekly, the Voice maintains the
same tradition of no-holds-barred reporting and criticism it first
embraced when it began publishing fifty years ago. The Village Voice
has received three Pulitzer prizes, the National Press Foundation
Award, the George Polk Award, Front Page Awards, Deadline Club Awards
and many others while earning a reputation for its groundbreaking
investigations of New York City politics and as the premier expert
publication on New York’s cultural scene. NCB
