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- James "Jim" Anthony Larkin (born June 16, 1949) is a Phoenix publisher and journalist, known for his influence in the alternative newspaper industry. He is largely responsible, along with business partner Michael Lacey, for expanding the Phoenix New Times from its origins as an anti-Vietnam War weekly begun in Tempe, Arizona in 1970 into what became the nation's largest chain of alternative weeklies. Known as New Times Inc. and eventually, Village Voice Media (VVM), the 17-paper chain included the Village Voice in New York, the LA Weekly, and the Miami New Times, among others. With Larkin in charge of the business side and Lacey in charge of editorial, the two men expanded what had been a small, college-based publication with a circulation of 16,000 to an industry giant with a combined circulation of 1.8 million, a total value of $400 million and $180 million in annual revenue. Lacey and Larkin sold VVM in 2012 to longtime company executives, and the company was renamed Voice Media Group (VMG). Lacey and Larkin retained control of the classified ad site Backpage.com, which they co-founded in 2004 with ad exec Carl Ferrer as a competitor to Craigslist.org. Ferrer purchased Backpage in 2015 from Lacey and Larkin in a seller-financed deal. By that time, Backpage was under constant fire from state Attorneys General and various NGOs for listings appearing in its adult ad section. Critics accused Backpage of promoting prostitution and sex trafficking through its "adult" section, though the ads in the section had been found by several federal and state courts to be protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and the First Amendment. Backpage closed its adult ad section in January 2017 on the eve of a federal hearing into its practices. The U.S. Department of Justice later convened a federal grand jury to investigate the company, and in April 2018, the FBI arrested Larkin, Lacey and several others on charges of facilitating prostitution, money laundering and conspiracy, with Ferrer turning state's evidence and promising to testify against his former employers in exchange for leniency. Larkin, Lacey and four others have pleaded not guilty to all charges in the indictment—100 total, with each defendant charged with different counts. The FBI also seized Backpage, removing it permanently from the internet. The trial for Larkin and his co-defendants began Sept. 1 2021 in federal court in Phoenix before U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich, an appointee of President Donald Trump and the wife of Backpage critic, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican who is running to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Kelly in 2022. On Sep. 14, Brnovich granted a defense motion for mistrial, “after deciding prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge,” according to the Associated Press. Brnovich said she had given prosecutors “leeway” to discuss sex trafficking as long as they did not linger on the details, but the government “abused that leeway.” Brnovich scheduled a new trial for Feb. 2022. She recused herself without explanation in Oct. 2021 and was replaced by federal Judge Diane Humetewa, a longtime ally of former U.S. Sen. John McCain. Lacey and Larkin claim McCain and his wife Cindy had driven the federal prosecution, saying it’s payback for the days when their papers criticized McCain. In December, Humetewa denied a defense motion to dismiss the case for double jeopardy, and a new trial is now on hold while the defendants appeal her ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On Sept. 21, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the defendants' request that the court reverses Humetewa and dismiss the case because a new trial would violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on Double Jeopardy. The panel wrote that "the government’s misconduct" during the trial "was not so egregious as to compel a finding" that prosecutors intended to provoke a mistrial, the legal standard for dismissal in this instance. A new trial reportedly could take place in 2023. (en)
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- James "Jim" Anthony Larkin (born June 16, 1949) is a Phoenix publisher and journalist, known for his influence in the alternative newspaper industry. He is largely responsible, along with business partner Michael Lacey, for expanding the Phoenix New Times from its origins as an anti-Vietnam War weekly begun in Tempe, Arizona in 1970 into what became the nation's largest chain of alternative weeklies. Known as New Times Inc. and eventually, Village Voice Media (VVM), the 17-paper chain included the Village Voice in New York, the LA Weekly, and the Miami New Times, among others. (en)
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