Voice Media Group (VMG) is an American privately held media company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. VMG owns several newspaper publications across the country. These offerings extend across print, mobile and digital marketing.[1]
VMG was founded in September 2012, when Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars announced an agreement to purchase Village Voice Media's papers and web properties from their founders.[2] The classified web site Backpage.com was not part of the sale.[3]
VMG launched the digital marketing agency V Digital Services in 2013. VDS works with VMG publications and partners around the country to offer digital marketing solutions[buzzword] including organic SEO, social media management, paid media, web development and programmatic and pay-per-click advertising. V Digital Services made Inc. magazine's “Inc. 500 list”[4] of America's fastest-growing private companies in 2019, 2018 and 2017.
While adding resources to VDS, Voice Media Group has made strategic divestments of some its newspaper properties. On May 6, 2015, VMG announced the sale of Minneapolis City PagestoStar Tribune Media Co.[5] In October 2015, VMG sold the Village Voice[6] in New York City to Pennsylvania newspaper owner Peter Barbey. In October 2017, VMG sold LA Weekly[7] to local owners; the next month, following devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, it announced that the Houston Press would cease print publication[8] and transition to an online-only entity.
In 2021, Voice Media Group sold the Houston Press to an anonymous buyer.[9]
VMG's publications have won numerous national journalism awards, including the 2018 George Polk Award[10] for immigration reporting at Phoenix New Times, 2017 Sigma Delta Chi Awards[11] at both Miami New Times and Westword, and the 2014 George Polk Award[12] for sports reporting at Miami New Times.
