At long last, the Village Voice has found itself a managing editor. She's Deborah Kolben, most recently of the Sun. Kolben follows the defection of Sun spokesperson Maggie Shnayerson, which suggests that either there's something so wrong at New York's mostly unread wacky conservative paper (as opposed to the wacky, but read, Journal) that even Cooper Square seems idyllic by comparison or that after dealing with Alicia Colon on a regular basis, Mara Altman gives no cause for concern. Full memo after the jump.

Deborah Kolben Joins the Village Voice as Managing Editor

 New York, NY (February 26, 2007) The Village Voice is pleased to announce that Deborah Kolben will join the newspaper as managing editor this April.

Most recently, Kolben was the city editor of the New York Sun. Prior to that, she was the education reporter for the Sun as well as a reporter for the New York Daily News and The Brooklyn Papers. She has written for the Jerusalem Report, the Guardian and the Financial Times.

I grew up in New York reading the Voice and I'm looking forward to being a part of a newspaper that plays such a vital role for so many in New York and elsewhere, Kolben said.

Kolben is the winner of two National Newspaper Association awards for investigative reporting and has been honored for her feature writing.

Deborah Kolben is a talented and creative editor whose dedication to news and narrative made her indispensable to the New York Sun's distinguished local coverage, said David Blum, editor-in-chief of the Village Voice. I'm thrilled to welcome her to the Voice.

A Brooklyn resident and a native New Yorker, Kolben is a graduate of both the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University.