Is the Voice dream express unravelling

manonthestreet

I'm writing from Galway where there are major concerns for the jobs of the staff at the Galway Voice. What's the story in Kilkenny? The word is that will be the last place they will shut, but the ad sales are poor and circulation is only about 3,500 in reality, so surely it's only a matter or time before that goes.
MOTS:cool:
Four local news titles cease operations
Friday, 7 March 2008 16:32
Up to 40 jobs are to go following the closure of four local newspaper titles.

The Monaghan, Cavan, Tipperary and Kildare Voice newspapers all ceased to operate this week.

The Voice Newspaper Group blamed the downturn in the economy and competition from British newspaper groups.

The Chairman and founder of The Voice Newspaper Group, John Sheils, said: 'It is a sad day for all of us, however, I must stress that the closures did not reflect the quality of the newspapers and the high standards achieved by the staff who worked there.

'We have every confidence that, with the commitment and expertise demonstrated by the staff, they will secure employment in the near future.'

The company's titles in Kilkenny, Laois, Galway and Tallaght will continue to be published.

road_high

Sorry to hear about the uncetainty over your job there. Thats v stressful I'd imagine...
I think the Voice group maybe expanded too much too quickly and at a bad time too with the economy slowing down so much. Is KK the head office for them or is it Galway?
The local paper market is satuarated really i'd say in most areas and with so many other media outlets must be hard to compete.

EKRIUQ

mfitzy wrote: »

Is KK the head office for them or is it Galway?
The local paper market is satuarated really i'd say in most areas and with so many other media outlets must be hard to compete.

I think your getting confused with the Kilkenny Advertiser fitzy, their head office is in Glaway. But just shows how many papers their is in the area.

When the voice came out first I enquired about advertising but they were as expensive as the Kilkenny People/Tipp Star/ Clonmel Nationalist considering they wern't as establisted and got no deals with the sales people I decided not to run with them.

Surpised with the Tipp voice as they were going to be the only paper to cover the whole of Tipperary.

Purry Cat

Mfitzy is quite right - the Voice group expanded way too quickly, bringing out titles like Cavan and Monaghan merely for the sake of it.

Niall Mellon, the guy who builds those houses for poor people in Cape Town, must be highly embarrassed after taking a majority stake in the Voice group (their HQ is on the Castlecomer Road in Kilkenny city) last year.

Now that a lot of the deadwood has been cut away, I imagine he'll pump resources into the remaining titles. Let's face it, it would be sad if the Kilkenny People were left with the field to itself again. (Obviously the Advertiser doesn't count as a serious paper.)

John Sheils's line about the competition from British newspaper groups is poppycock. He should be taking a long hard look at himself in the mirror.

ztoical

BingoBongo wrote: »

Surpised with the Tipp voice as they were going to be the only paper to cover the whole of Tipperary.

I'm not surprised - haven't heard one positive comment about the voice since it started. I'm original from Thurles and everyone there felt it was a pretty poor version of the Tipperary Star. I know it should have been given a chance to grow but they didn't help themselves by making lots of silly mistakes - getting peoples names and dates wrong. My dad got interviewed by them back in august for the aid work he did and they got his name and a bunch of other details wrong.

agoodud

Irregardless of attitudes to the Cavan and Monaghan papers being in a competitive market. They were undoubtedly the strongest in terms of stories. The Monaghan Voice broke a story which was front page in the Irish Examiner the followign Saturday about the former abbott involved in the Brendan Smith debacle. In fact they had a number of stories which were followed by the national media.
The fact that they closed is a shame because they were far and away the strongest papers in both counties and in the group. In fact the remaining papers are probably the weakest in terms of news with Galway being exceptionally poor which is a shame becuase the Tribune has not broke a story in years. It has it too easy.
They were treated DISGRACEFULLY by John Shiels who had door locks changed in Cavan within 15 minutes of being told and that is a FACT. The whole group is a shambles in terms of management. John Shiels is a real operator and his general management of the paper was laughable to say the least.
Staff have yet to be paid despite what so called philanthropist Niall Mellon has said.
People worked long hard hours in these papers, and never resorted to press releases, bigging up the local TD's and councillors unlike most local media and the fact that they are gone in Cavan and Monaghan is a tragedy but simply no resources were put into either paper. In fact six journalists and two sports people wrote both papers. A disgrace and Shiels and his ilk should be brought to task

Purry Cat

Sad to say that not only will Sheils and his ilk NOT be brought to task, but also that Sheils has made millions out of the sale of the Voice group to Niall Mellon and is now laughing all the way to the bank. Sickening!