Dear Gary Lacinski, Monday, September 28, 2009

Dear Gary Lacinski,
Advertising Account Executive
Village Voice Media
36 Cooper Square l New York, New York 10003

Thank you very much for your quick turn-around in responding to my
latest press release concerning The St. Mark's Bookshop Reading
Series. The breakdown of your advertising rates was very informative.
Thanks, too, for implying that I could get a drop on the Best of New
York Issue, coming October 21st. If the free reading series I host
around the corner from your offices ever turns a profit, I may very
well think about comparing your rates to a weekly events paper that
anyone in the neighborhood actually reads.

I suppose you're up-to-speed on the news that print media is dying
out, so I applaud your initiative. You're actually attempting to
capitalize on news subjects rather than lazily moping around, waiting
for advertisers to show up. Most of the other weekly papers covering
events in New York--Time Out, The New Yorker, both of which have
rolled over for us time and again--are quite backwards, compared to
you. They report what's happening in New York out of courtesy, in the
misguided notion that people want to read news instead of page after
page of advertisements disguised as news.

In fact, you've inspired me. Perhaps we should work out rates for
our front vestibule, where your paper sits untouched throughout the
week. That real estate is valuable, after all.

Nice MySpace page, by the way. It's gratifying to learn that your
interests run the gamut from "Money" to "Cash$" to "Beautiful
Expensive gorgeous Things!!!!!"

Get out of my neighborhood.

Sincerely,
Greg Purcell
St. Mark's Bookshop