A group of Cornish weekly newspapers has joined the digital age with a new-look website offering news and information to a growing online audience.
When Tindle bought the Voice group last September, the community-based titles had never had a live digital presence sharing the latest news from their circulation region.
The Voice titles had built an engaged local audience through six print newspapers covering communities across Cornwall with editions for St Austell, Newquay, Truro, Bodmin, Saltash / Liskeard and Camborne / Redruth / Penzance.
One of Tindle’s first objectives was to create a new website so the papers could play their part in the company’s commitment to growing a digital audience as part of its mission to provide trusted local news sources.
And in December, voicenewspapers.co.uk went live using the same technology and workflows implemented across the Tindle group as part of a company-wide roll-out of new website designs.
Now, said Voice editor-in-chief Stuart Fraser, progress has been rapid. He said: “We’ve just posted a 100% increase on our first month’s figures for our second month, January.
“It’s been great to see thousands of people reading our coverage of some big news stories already, such as the UK’s first mission into space launched from Cornwall Airport.
Exciting expansion
“But what’s so encouraging is that many of the themes we can cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week now are the same themes to which people have always reacted in print, like planning issues affecting local communities, policing and emergency service activities plus local sport.
“We have a small team of very experienced journalists, all of whom have worked online before, so the transition hasn’t been too much of a challenge. We work from home but talk every day, all day, just like journalists in newsrooms always have, though these days of course conversations are by email and What’s App.
“And like the rest of Tindle, we remain committed to our print products, to providing quality, trusted local journalism.
“It’s exciting for all of us to have the chance to expand what we do in this way and provide more variety and service to our readers and advertisers.
“The Voice teams are taking part in Tindle’s daily editorial meetings where ideas are exchanged and discussed, and there’s daily analysis of what stories are doing well online and in print so we can focus on the areas that interest our readers.”
Emily Woolfe, Group Digital Editor, said: “It has been pleasing to see the new Voice websites resonate with local audiences, complementing the popular print titles by providing digital news.
“The team have embraced the opportunity to benefit from technology and editorial tips from across the Tindle group so we look forward to supporting them to achieve more progress online.”