David Schneiderman

David Schneiderman, an editor turned publisher turned chief executive of The Village Voice, the granddaddy of alternative newspapers, whose 28-year tenure ran from its era of downtown-bestriding indispensability to a long, slow fade in the internet era, died on Friday January 17 2025 in Edmonds, Wash., near Seattle. He was 77. His daughter, Kate Schneiderman, said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was pneumonia brought on by chronic lymphocytic leukemia, with which he was diagnosed two years ago. He lived in Woodway, Wash. He was named editor in chief in 1978 by Rupert Murdoch, who bought The Voice in 1977. Under a new owner, Leonard N. Stern, a pet food and real estate mogul who bought The Voice in 1985, Schneiderman ascended to the job of publisher. Stern — with input from Schneiderman, who was named president of Mr. Stern’s VV Publishing Corporation in 1988 — acquired other alternative papers, first L.A. Weekly in 1994 and later papers in Seattle, Nashville and the Twin Cities. With the advent of Craigslist, the free online portal for classified ads — the source of half The Voice’s revenue — Stern saw the writing on the wall and abruptly decided to sell. In 2000, the seven-paper chain, including the flagship Voice, was bought by a group of investors. They installed Schneiderman as chief executive, with a small equity stake, in a new company, Village Voice Media. The company merged in 2005 with the New Times Group. Schneiderman resigned in 2006. Schneiderman commuted from his home near Seattle to San Francisco, where he was an executive of a corporate communications firm, Abernathy MacGregor Group (now H/Advisors Abernathy). He retired in 2016. Schneiderman received a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s degree in international studies in 1970 from Johns Hopkins University.. His marriage to Peggy Rosenthal ended in divorce. In 2006 he married Dana Faust, the managing director of advertising for The Times at its Seattle sales office. She and Ms. Schneiderman, his daughter from his first marriage, survive him, as do a stepson, Benjamin Drachler; a stepdaughter, Madeline Drachler; four grandchildren; and his brother, Stuart Schneiderman.