The Voice Online CSP

• The Voice newspaper, first published in 1982, is committed to celebrating black experience and delivering positive change by informing the black community on important issues.
• The production, distribution, and circulation of The Voice have changed dramatically since its first edition.
• The publishers of The Voice had to respond to the impact of new technology on the way audiences were consuming texts, especially the movement away from physical media to online products and downloads.
• The change in consumption forced the newspaper to focus more on its digital output.
• David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting.
• No one was going to invest in a newspaper which targeted a niche audience unless it was going to make money.
• The social and political context of the early 1980s offered the founder of The Voice, Val McCalla, an opportunity to raise the funds needed for such a risky venture.
• Barclays Bank was being heavily criticised for its investments in South Africa where racial segregation was institutionalised in a system known as apartheid.
• In a bit of impression management, the bank attempted to counteract the negative publicity by showing support for African-Caribbean causes.
• McCalla secured £62,000 from Barclays with the backing of the Loan Guarantee Scheme which was part of a series of initiatives set up by Margaret Thatcher’s government to help unemployed people start their own business.
• The circulation of the paper peaked at 55,000 in the early 1990s with young women being a substantial majority of its weekly buyers.
• Paying over £3m, The Gleaner Company took ownership of the newspaper in 2004.
• The publishers of The Voice continue to make money through subscriptions and single-copy sales of the print edition, but the online version generates revenue through display ads and advertorials.
• According to an article from The Independent, council recruiting carried The Voice during the recession years of the 1980s.
• There is also a search function available by clicking the magnifying icon.
• The Voice wanted to publish stories which were relevant to the second generation who were born and raised in Britain, creating a countertype to the negative portrayals of black people often represented in the mainstream media.
• The Voice Online follows many of the basic conventions of web design, with a header consisting of a logo, which links to the homepage, a horizontal menu with the main categories, a subscription button, and the social media links.
• Clay Shirky’s concept of mass amateurisation describes the changes in the media landscape where the profitability of a newspaper really depends on its advertising revenue, including the classified ads for institutions who are wanting to hire new employees.
• In We The Media, Dan Gillmor explored the changes in the news industry and argued that grassroots journalists were a serious threat to the monopolies enjoyed by big media conglomerates.
• Advertorials are categorised as sponsored on The Voice website.
• The “official” news organisations are no longer writing the “first draft of history” because “the audience is learning how to get a better, timelier report”.
• Before the introduction of The Voice, the black press in Britain targeted first-generation immigrants, keeping the diaspora up to date about news about the old countries.
• The hamburger icon loads a full list of categories and subcategories.
• Although digital natives expect a certain level of interactivity from their news sources, an older audience might still prefer the feel of print between their fingers.
• The Gleaner Company is a Jamaican newspaper and media enterprise.
• Their subsidiary, GV Media Group, still publishes the paper today.
• The shift in the publishing from print media to digital formats has been dramatic.
• Clay Shirky’s “Newspapers and Thinking he Unthinkable” is a great summary of the threat the newspaper industry faced from online competition, but you probably already know Teen Vogue is no longer available as a glossy magazine and Oh Comely sold its last copy in 2021.
• The Voice moved from weekly to monthly editions.
• Production costs are generally cheaper for online newspapers compared to the traditional tabloid.
• After some upfront expenditure to design and build a functioning website, the main running costs are for hosting, maintenance and security.
• Consumers often prefer the digital format because they can access the site at a time that suits their lifestyle and routine.
• The relationship between producers and audiences has also shifted.
• The publishers promote their content on various social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
• Most posts will direct you to the main website, but The Voice will also retweet and share posts from other institutions to increase the level of engagement with their primary audience.
• The post’s headline is given prominence through the use of a large font (1.375rem), dark colour (#393939) and a bold weight (400).
• The footer is at the bottom of each page and contains the typical links to the privacy policy, copyright information and contact us page.
• Each card includes a thumbnail signifying the key themes of the post, a category link, and a headline.
• The main copy is left-aligned with a ragged-right edge.
• If resize your browser on a desktop computer, for example, and shrink the width, the number of columns will shift from three to one.