Jamaican press group takes over British black community newspaper
Friday, May 21, 2004
LONDON, England: According to the
Independent, a newspaper aimed at Britain's black community, The Voice, has
been bought by Jamaica's largest newspaper group. The newspaper was sold on
Tuesday to The Gleaner Company, which owns the Daily Gleaner, Sunday Gleaner
and Star newspapers in Jamaica. Val McCalla,
a Jamaican-born accountant and former RAF pilot, began the newspaper at the
1982 Notting Hill Carnival. It became a leading advocate for Britain's large
black and Afro-Caribbean community. Mr McCalla's wife, Linda, and two sons,
Michael and David, took it over following his death, aged 58, from a liver
illness in 2002. The Gleaner Company's
chairman, Oliver Clarke, declined to divulge the exact amount it had paid, but
said the company would spend between US$5.7 million and $7.6 million on the
acquisition and refinancing of The Voice, its largest investment to date.
"We think The Voice has a great name in England," Mr Clarke said. "It's part
of our general move to develop newspapers and other publications for a younger
market and people of Caribbean descent."
Circulation of the London-based tabloid is said to be around 20,000 per week.
In the past decade, declining advertising revenue, increased competition and
accounting problems have hurt its readership figures.
Mr Clarke said he would seek to resolve the newspaper's financial woes through
refinancing, but didn't plan any major editorial changes.
The Gleaner Company's UK director, John Hudson, said the company had made the
McCalla family an offer last year that they had rejected, but the family
subsequently made an approach in February to see if the company wanted to
resume negotiations. Speaking of any new
direction the paper might take, Mr Hudson said: "We have to look and see what
the market dictates and look at maybe some market research on it.
The Gleaner Company owns eight publications outside Jamaica, including two
each in Canada and the United States. The
Voice launched the careers of the television interviewer Martin Bashir and the
novelist Diran Adebayo.
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