The Voice, founded in 1982, is a British national African-Caribbean newspaper operating in the United Kingdom. The paper is based in London and was published every Thursday until 2019 when it became monthly. It is available in a paper version by subscription and also online.

The Voice newspaper is “committed to celebrating black experience” and aims to deliver “positive change” by “informing the black community on important issues”. With its news stories, in-depth interviews, opinion pieces and investigations, The Voice remains “Britain’s most successful black newspaper”.

Editor: Lester Holloway – British journalist and editor, as well as a campaigner and local politician.

Stats:

• The circulation of the paper peaked at 55,000 in the early 1990s with young women being a substantial majority of its weekly buyers.

Other significant points:

• How McCalla secured funds for this ‘risky business venture’ – 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 Voice enterprise was a success and the bank loan was paid off within five years.
• Paying over £3m, The Gleaner Company took ownership of the newspaper in 2004. They are a Jamaican newspaper and media enterprise
• The company then moved from print to online and changed to only monthly editions. Production costs for online newspapers are generally cheaper. For the website the main running costs are for hosting, maintenance and security.

Representation:

Before the introduction of The Voice, the black press in Britain targeted first-generation immigrants. Newspapers, such as The Caribbean Times and West Africa, kept the diaspora up to date about news about the old countries. The Voice was different. It wanted to publish stories which were relevant to the second generation who were born and raised in Britain.

Theorists:

• 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.

However, 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.

Clay Shirky and the End of Audience

Old Passive Audience VS New Active Audience

Old – Broadcast media used to deliver their products to a mass audience who were mostly disconnected from each other. It was a linear flow of communication with carefully crafted messages intended to entertain and inform the audience.

New – The internet was the beginning of the end of the traditional audience. For example, readers seemed to prefer digital copies of newspapers because they could respond to the articles by adding their own comments and interact with other commentators.

In We The Media, Dan Gillmor (2004) explored the changes in the news industry. He argued grassroots journalists were a serious threat to the monopolies enjoyed by big media conglomerates. 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”.

This sort of citizen journalism is a good example of Clay Shirky’s concept of mass amateurisation.

The Voice will struggle to be heard by an audience who prefer the quick and easy comment culture of social media rather than long-form journalism.