Voice of The Times
to cease operation
at end of October

WE ARE SORRY to report that the Voice of The Times will be stilled after the end of October. Funding for the Voice, an online Alaska journal of conservative opinion, is expiring and no new source of revenue has been found.

The Voice has a fine readership base of about 20,000 largely conservative readers in Alaska and elsewhere, one that generates about 1.2 million hits per month. In ordinary times, that audience would be attractive for a media organization with the ability to attract advertisers and sell space on the site for a profit.

But these are not ordinary times in the media world. . .

(cont'd from front page) Many print and broadcast stocks have fallen sharply in recent years and existing organizations are mostly deep in debt and unable to expand their organizations or take on new responsibilities, potentially profitable or not.

When the Voice was launched as a Web site a little more than a year ago, the editors were given a year to make it profitable and take it independent. Though they knew that would be a difficult challenge, they decided to give it a try.

But the Voice had difficulty attracting advertisers both because it did not have a professional sales staff and because many prospective advertisers consider it politically radioactive due to its identification with Bill Allen, its former publisher and a key figure in the ongoing political scandals in Alaska. Actually, Allen was a hands-off publisher who never tried to direct editorial content. The editors were on their own there and followed the dictates of their own consciences.

The VOT is owned by The Times Publishing Co., which was formerly a subsidiary of Veco, one of several that were not acquired by CH2M Hill in last year's sale. Since the sale, Times Publishing has been supported largely by the holding company formed from the Veco units remaining after the sale. The holding company is owned by the Allen Family Trust, which similarly has never made any content demands on the editors.

The Web page has successfully attracted several excellent advertisers, whose business the editors greatly appreciate. Unfortunately their numbers have been too few.

The situation put some of the most likely advertisers in an awkward position. The editors are very knowledgeable in oil and gas issues, supportive of the free enterprise system and believe in keeping taxes low to encourage new investment and create jobs. But the oil and gas companies — and many of their contractors — were put off by the Allen connection.

They were in the strange position of providing advertising support for media like the Anchorage Daily News, which is from the opposite end of the political spectrum, while shying away from The Voice of The Times, which shares their values and offers an attractive audience.

The Anchorage Times has a long history in Alaska, extending back to May, 1915, when it was founded as a report on the Status of the New Townsite before the community was named Anchorage. The following week it became a weekly known as the Cook Inlet Pioneer and Knik News. It became a daily that October and changed its name to The Anchorage Daily Times & Cook Inlet Pioneer, later shortened to The Anchorage Daily Times and finally to The Anchorage Times. Its best known editor/publisher was Robert B. Atwood, who held the position for 55 years and played a major role in Alaska's history throughout that period.

The print edition of the newspaper ceased publication in 1992, but its editorial voice was kept alive through an agreement with the McClatchey organization and published on the op ed page of the Anchorage Daily News for 15 years before it moved to its present position on the World Wide Web.

And it is from there that we must say goodbye. Doing so is difficult, but the time has come.