New Times was founded in 1970 and over the next three decades grew to become the largest alternative-newspaper chain in the country. The company started with Phoenix New Times, whose writers have won the Arizona Press Club's Journalist of the Year award on a regular basis. In 1983, the company began expanding, first acquiring Westword in Denver and ultimately growing to include Miami New Times, the Dallas Observer, the Houston Press, SF Weekly in San Francisco, Cleveland Scene, the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, The Pitch in Kansas City, and New Times Broward-Palm Beach in Ft. Lauderdale.

In 2006, New Times, Inc merged with Village Voice Media, Inc, taking on the name Village Voice Media along with six newspapers: Village Voice, LA Weekly, OC Weekly, Seattle Weekly, Minneapolis City Pages, and Nashville Scene.

In 2012, a group of VVM executives purchased the editorial holdings from the previous owners and created a new company, Voice Media Group, which now owns eleven publications: the Village Voice, LA Weekly, Phoenix New Times, Westword, Miami New Times, Broward-Palm Beach New Times, City Pages, the Dallas Observer, the Houston Press, OC Weekly and the Riverfront Times.