Will Swaim, editor and publisher of OC Weekly, is leaving the alternative weekly newspaper he helped to start 12 years ago.

Swaim said he’s leaving over “philosophical differences” with owner Village Voice Media of Phoenix.

The company, formerly New Times Media, bought the Santa Ana-based paper in early 2006.

Swaim said the “differences aren’t good or bad, just differences.”

“I think they’ll do well,” he said of OC Weekly.

Swaim has given his resignation and still is at the paper for an interim period.

After that, he said he plans to spend time with his family and then get back to work.

New Times Media, which runs alternative weeklies across the country, bought OC Weekly’s former parent Village Voice Media. It then took on the Village Voice name.

The company has seen changes at its various papers since the deal closed.

Swaim helped start OC Weekly as editor in the mid-1990s. He set the paper’s irreverent style, covering music and other entertainment here.

In recent years, the paper made a mark with investigative stories about political figures, including Sheriff Mike Carona and Gregg Haidl, son of former assistant sheriff Don Haidl.

In 2002, Swaim added the post of associate publisher and became publisher in 2004.

Swaim served as the Orange County Business Journal’s copyeditor for a short time before joining OC Weekly.