Washington College Magazine
An Alternatives State Of Mind
At 30, Kevin Hoffman '98 has his dream job. The philosophy major and former Elm editor who notoriously poked fun at the faculty and administration in his April Fool's Day issue is still reveling in the power of the press to make people think and laugh at the same time. His plum position? Editor-in-chief of Village Voice Media's City Pages, Minneapolis/St.Paul's alternative news weekly. Hoffman appreciates the long narrative form adopted by the alternatives, as well a youthful staff and an urban-based readership that value topics and stylistic treatments too edgy for the mainstream press. Within his first month on the job, Hoffman developed a standing feature offering local news briefs in a satiric form modeled on The Daily Show and The Onion. "It presents important information, but it's also funny," says Hoffman.
Kevin Hoffman '98 (pictured with his wife, Erin) is the new editor-in-chief at Village Voice Media's City Pages. Fast-tracking his career, Hoffman is a decade younger than any other editor in a chain of 17 weeklies.
He was at Columbia University's School of Journalism, intent on a career with the Philadelphia Inquirer, when he realized something. "I was writing a story about HIV, and many of my sources were gay. I described in rather graphic detail how one of my sources had contracted the virus. My instructor told me, 'No daily would ever publish something like this. You're better off going to the alternative weeklies."
Hoffman, who after college cut his teeth in hard-nosed journalism with the Associated Press and the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader in Pennsylvania, preferred the more literary approach of the alternatives.
Upon graduation from Columbia in 2001, he worked briefly at the Cleveland Free Times before being hired away by the competition. As Andy Van De Voorde, the executive associate editor of Village Voice Media explained it to his staff, "This guy was kicking our a** for the competition, so we figured it was a good idea to hire him to go kick other people's a**es."
Later, as it turns out, the competition simply bought out Village Voice Media and adopted the better-known name.
At the Scene, Hoffman worked as a staff writer for three years and then entered the editor trainee program under the tutelage of Pete Kotz. Six months later, he was named managing editor. Eighteen months after that, when VVM needed an editor in the Twin Cities, Van De Voorde turned to Hoffman.
During Hoffman's tenure at Scene, the paper took first-place in the Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards and was named the best weekly in Ohio. Hoffman won his share of awards for his writing, and his story "Soul of the Brute" was included in Penguin Books' Notes from the Underground; The Most Outrageous Stories from the Alternative Press (2005). Hoffman's piece examined the then-nascent sport of mixed martial arts fighting and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
"In a lot of ways this is my dream come true," says Hoffman. "When I was a kid I used to put out a 'zine to sell at punk rock shows. I never really liked the work that went into production and distribution, so I would have my sister sell it. Now I get to run a newspaper, and someone else will print it and distribute it."
Even as editor-in-chief, Hoffman still gets to write. One of his first cover stories for City Pages examines hockey violence through a profile of Derek "The Boogeyman" Boogaard, of the Minnesota Wild. "It's important that an editor understand the process that his writers are going through," says Hoffman, "so he can give advice and be sympathetic to their situation."
Hoffman gives much of the credit for his success to his mentor in Cleveland. "Pete Kotz really showed me the ropes: demonstrating the structure of longer form stories, how to be a good manager of people, how to win respect from employees. I was lucky enough to be at a company where they judge people on merit and talent, rather than seniority."
Still, his experience with the Washington College Elm is one of his fondest memories.
"I remember freshman year, walking out of Reid Hall with a column I would be writing. At some schools there's a real hierarchy. At WC, if you were willing to work, they were glad to have you. During that time I met some of the funniest, most sardonic, quick-thinking people I've ever met. That's when I really fell in love with journalism and the kind of people who are attracted to journalism."
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