New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The Press strove to create a rivalry with the Village Voice. Press editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hentoff from the Voice. Liz Trotta of The Washington Post compared the rivalry to a similar sniping between certain publications in the eighteenth-century British press, such as the Analytical Review and its self-styled nemesis, the Anti-Jacobin Review. The founder, Russ Smith, was a conservative who wrote a long column called "Mugger" in every issue, but did not promote just a right-wing viewpoint in the publication. The paper's weekly circulation in 2006 topped 100,000, compared to about 250,000 for the Village Voice, but this total fell to 20,000 by the end of the paper's run. The Press touted a Manhattan-focused, controlled distribution system while a good portion of the Village Voices circulation is outside the NYC metro area. The print edition of New York Press was discontinued on September 1, 2011; its online edition was an aggregate of Manhattan Media's other publications. The print edition of Our Town Downtown was resumed in its place, after merging with New York Press. NYPress.com is currently owned by Straus News. Independent weekly (1988–2002) The paper was founded by Russ Smith, who published it until he sold it in late 2002. Smith was assisted throughout this period by John Strausbaugh. Smith wrote a column starting with the first issue, which was published under the pseudonym "MUGGER"; it mostly focused on media coverage of politics, as well as restaurant reviews and personal anecdotes. At some point Smith began running the column under his own name, though still titled "Mugger"; it ran in the New York Press until 2009. During Smith's editorship, the Press ran regular columns by the radical Alexander Cockburn; the conservative Taki Theodoracopoulos; Christopher Caldwell, future Weekly Standard editor; Soul Coughing lead singer Mike Doughty (both under his own name and under the pseudonym "Dirty Sanchez"); Adam Mazmanian; Todd Seavey; Paul Lukas; occultist Alan Cabal; Mistress Ruby; J. R. Taylor; Zach Parsi; C. J. Sullivan; Dave Lindsay; Jessica Willis; Spike Vrusho; Ned Vizzini; and Daniel Radosh. Many New York Press writers and editorial staff from this time have advanced in their careers: examples include the author and screenwriter William Monahan, author Dave Eggers; David Skinner, editor of the Weekly Standard and Humanities magazine;