Peter Barbey, Reading Eagle Company president, buys ‘The Village Voice’

But the Denver-based Voice Media Group raised the most eyebrows when in 2013 it moved the Village Voice out of Greenwich Village to, of all places, the Financial District.

Voice Media Group announced Monday that it has sold its flagship title to a company controlled by investor Peter Barbey of the Reading Eagle Company, a family-owned business that says it has been publishing newspapers since 1796.

The United States’ first alternative newsweekly has a new owner. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

He bought The Village Voice for an undisclosed sum from the Voice Media Group, which owns a number of weekly newspapers. Both Barbey and VMG said that upon assuming control of the Voice in 2016, the two companies will maintain a collaborative editorial relationship, sharing their award-winning film and television coverage.

“During a time of great challenges and great opportunities in the industry, we’re thrilled that we’ve found an experienced journalist and operator with such considerable resources to take the reins at the Voice”, Voice Media Group CEO Scott Tobias said in a statement.

Since being founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, and Norman Mailer, the Voice has been a journalistic touchstone in New York. “Many publications have stripped their content”.

Barbey has not revealed how much he’ll spend on revamping The Voice, but it’s clear he has the resources to do it. Forbes ranked the Barbeys at No. 48 on a list of America’s wealthiest families. In 2005, the weekly was bought by New Times Media and within a year, the ownership change triggered staff departures including star reporters and its publisher.