This 40th issue of Aberdeen Voice marks exactly nine months from the release of our very first issue, and gives us cause for a healthy measure of pride that we have endured to the point that we need to start planning our 1st Anniversary celebrations.
Anyone up for a party?
As I write this report, I find myself looking back at that first collection of articles, and it is abundantly clear that our handling and presentation of material has improved immensely.
The content of that very first issue also demonstrates strong areas of consistency between then and now.
In those first ten articles published in Aberdeen Voice, we find a blend of fact and opinion based pieces, focussing predominantly on council business, Union Terrace Gardens, the condition of our city, supplemented with satire, humour, poetry and news of arts and sporting events – a blend we have for the most part succeeded in maintaining over the lifetime of Aberdeen Voice, and a particular blend which engenders a sense of identity.
Unfortunately, we have been less successful with regard to our plans to move to a more flexible, professional hosting package as announced at the end of December.
This is almost entirely due to the delay in the setting up of an appropriate bank account from which to administer the costs of said package. An account was applied for in January and the bank involved – having identified the account type we required, estimated the setting up process as around 10 days. Well, after a long, long 10 days, (which on hindsight we really should have called an end to about 40 days ago) we are now on course to have an account set up with a different bank – in about 10 days as a matter of co-incidence.
The Aberdeen Voice team is very grateful to those who, by their generosity, have strongly indicated their support for us to proceed with the upgrade
In the last 3 months, our readership has continued to grow steadily at a rate of around 7% per month, and it is only down to the skills of our tech-man in overhauling and streamlining the site that we have been able to handle such an increase in traffic.
Since the installation of our ‘donate’ button, we have received £145 from readers, which, added to £155 from Aberdeen Voice team members, ensures that we have sufficient funds to cover the first 6 months of our running costs on the new package.
The Aberdeen Voice team is very grateful to those who, by their generosity, have strongly indicated their support for us to proceed with the upgrade and for us to continue to produce news, and information articles, which are relevant to the people of Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland, and to further improve the quality and the range of same.
However, the quality and quantity of articles is very much, as always, at the mercy of what we receive from local individuals and organisations, and we continue to welcome and encourage people to write for us. It is pleasing to report that in the vast majority of cases, what we receive is written to a good standard, and the quality of pictures and images supplied are usually at least of usable quality, but often excellent – making the task of processing and presenting your material, and preserving the authenticity of your work, not only easier, but a real pleasure.
We hope you continue to enjoy reading Aberdeen Voice, and that you continue to spread the word by posting/sending links of your favourite articles to friends and associates. We also hope that you can support us further via that recently installed donate button at some point in the near future – when you realise that George Osborne’s budget has resulted in you having so much disposable income that you cannot spend it quick enough.
Thank you all for your sustained and continuing support