CHEERS ... the four men who started the Village Voice back in 1992 (l-r) David Bellis, Andrew Jackson, Ron Ford and Mick Robey.
21 YEARS SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MELBOURNE From humble beginnings to a thriving community newspaper VILLAGE VOICE – truly local and proudly independent – is celebrating its 21st year of publication this year. It is by far the longest-serving paper in Melbourne’s history. Before Village Voice came out in December 1992, Melbourne had tried over nearly 150 years to establish its own newspaper. The first, a news sheet called “Mechanics Organ”, was produced on October 1, 1846, by a group of local people who formed the Melbourne Mechanics Institute. It was seven years before the institute published again - “The Melbourne Times” (2p) - to report the opening of the Potter Street Athenaeum. It promised more but didn’t deliver. Another 129 years passed before a Melbourne printer made a fresh attempt with “The Mercury” in 1982. Unfortunately, that folded on January 17, 1986, with issue 101. The idea for a new try for a newspaper for Melbourne came from a meeting of local residents David Bellis – a business executive and secretary of some local clubs – with Melbourne parish councillors Andrew Jackson and Mick Robey. After the meeting, Andrew Jackson by chance met Ron Ford, back home at Weston after years in newspaper editing and management in Sydney. He
FIRST EDITION ... how the Village Voice made its debut in December 1992.
INSIDE: ● The team that provides your monthly newspaper ● How we reported the changing face of Melbourne ● Businesses that have been with us from day one
joined the team, and planning for Village Voice got underway. Newspaper production by then had advanced from many years of labour intensive hot metal to an early version of today’s desktop publishing. Village Voice began with mostly hand-written copy, which was typed and scanned into a computer at the home office of a Derby journalist. Often during long hours, strips of single-column printed stories and separate headlines were cut up and pasted on thin cardboard shaped like newspaper pages. These boards were rushed to Chesterfield to be processed into plates for printing by the Derbyshire Times. The finished 16-page newspaper was – and is now – delivered to every house in our area by a team of mostly voluntary walkers. In a few months, Village Voice increased its number of pages and was able to switch production to a modern processing system at Coalville. Later it invested in its own desktop publishing technology and took on part-time design and editing professionals. The paper advanced into full colour photos in mid-2000 and contracted printing to the Derby Evening Telegraph. These were dramatic improvements, helped by continuing support of our advertisers, who welcomed the option of colour. The paper’s appearance reached its peak in more recent years, with production and advertising presentation handled by a local Melbourne business, Anthony Freeman’s Origin Design. Anthony’s professionalism works admirably alongside the editorial subbing and layout skills of David Finn, who has been associated with the Village Voice since 1993. Village Voice has developed strong and dedicated editorial and advertising teams. It strives to live up to its name with fair, accurate and readable cover of local issues and pictures of events throughout our area. We proudly believe its professional news presentation is equal to any equivalent free paper in the country. And we gratefully acknowledge the support we have had over the years from the community.
FOUR-PAGE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT CELEBRATING 21 YEARS OF THE VILLAGE VOICE