Film critics are now considered expendable at a time when print publication revenues are declining, and many from more than a dozen daily newspapers and several weeklies have been laid off, including Nathan Lee, one of The Village Voice's two full-time critics,and David Ansen from Newsweek.

Owen Gleiberman, a critic at Entertainment Weekly said, "That The Village Voice doesn't want to pay for two staff movie critics is a joke. There is so much to cover."

Critics support films that lack crowd-pleasing content or the financial means to properly advertise to the public. They kept the film "No Country for Old Men" in the forefront of conversation, possibly leading it to its best picture Oscar win this year.

Executive Editor of Village Voice Media Michael Lacey defends the decision to lay off Lee as an economic decision but states that the paper will continue a serious coverage of film. Not only do they still have full-time critics in the chain, they intend on extending the opportunity to New York freelancers to cover the scene specific to Manhattan.

Like most news, movie reviews have migrated to the Internet.  "Serious movies can always be helped by a boost from anywhere, but almost anyone who is interested can find plenty of information about a film before it even opens because of all the coverage in the blogs about festivals and screenings, " said S. T. Van Airsdale, a Senior Editor at defamer.com and the
Founder of thereeler.com.

Source: NY Times