David Blum, who until this week was The New York Sun’s television columnist, will become the editor-in-chief of the Village Voice effective September 12, it was announced yesterday.

The Village Voice, a 51-year-old free weekly tabloid, has been without a permanent editor since January, when its longtime editor, Donald Forst, stepped down after the newspaper was sold to a chain of alternative weeklies.

The newspaper’s writers and editors were told of the appointment at yesterday’s 3 p.m. editorial meeting, which Mr. Blum attended. Staffers said they were surprised by the announcement and had no hint it was imminent.

He told the editorial staff he had applied for the editorship after seeing an advertisement for the job in a recent issue of the Village Voice. “It all happened very quickly,” Mr. Blum, who first interviewed for the job last Tuesday, said.

Mr. Blum, 50, yesterday spent about 45 minutes fielding questions about his background and how he hoped to position the Village Voice going forward. “It’s a paper with a distinguished history,” he told the Sun. “It’s been on the cutting edge of journalism in the past, and I’d like to bring it back there.”

TheVillageVoice, known for its investigative features and its arts and popular culture coverage, has published the works of Henry Miller, I.F. Stone, and Allen Ginsberg, among other illustrious writers of the past half-century, and counts a number of celebrated local journalists among its current lineup, including a widely admired home-grown constitutionalist, Nat Hentoff.

Although Mr. Blum said it was too soon to talk specifically about the prospect of personnel changes, he added, “I want to bring in new voices and make the most of the voices we already have.”

The Sun’s television critic since 2002, Mr. Blum’s was lauded yesterday by the editor of the Sun, Seth Lipsky, as a “wonderful writer and critic who developed a real following among our readers and will be missed by all of his colleagues here, though we’re delighted and proud to see him land in such a catbird seat.”

Mr. Blum’s journalism career spans more than a quarter century. After spending four years as a staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal, he held editing and writing positions at Esquire, New York, and the New York Times magazines.

A married father of two children, he is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches a magazine writing workshop and helps students develop news and feature stories for the school’s syndicated wire service.

Mr. Blum, who has also written for Vanity Fair and the New Republic, is the author of two non-fiction titles. In 1992, he published “Flash in the Pan: The Life and Death of an American Restaurant (Simon & Schuster),” and in 2004 he brought out “Tick…Tick…Tick…: The Long Life and Turbulent Times of 60 Minutes” (HarperCollins).

It’s been a turbulent year for the Village Voice. In March, Douglas Simmons, who had been serving as acting editor since Mr. Forst’s departure, was fired after he oversaw the publication of a since-retracted story, portions of which were found to be fabricated.Two months ago, the editor of the Washington City Paper, Erik Wemple, was tapped for the job, but backed out before assuming the editorship.

Ward Harkavy has been serving as the newspaper’s interim editor.

Staffers said their enthusiasm for Mr. Blum’s appointment was tempered because of the debacle over Mr. Wemple’s hire and subsequent resignation.

There would be no similar mishap, Mr. Blum said. “I’ll be there on September 12 — I promise — and on September 13, which is more to the point,” he said.