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Voice of San Diego Enters Chapter Two

By Laura Walcher


Barbara Bry, editor of the VOICE of San Diego, is four months into the project and satisfied: "I call this period Chapter One."
By July, the team - which includes Neil Morgan and four full-time in editorial, two in non-editorial, two summer interns and a half-time reporter - will move across the hall, doubling its space. Buzz Woolley, financial backer and the chairman of the board, provides strategy and direction.
Barbara Bry will take on a new role as CEO/Senior Editor. There will be another full-time reporter, and an editor taking Bry's place.
During Chapter One, readership grew to an estimated 100,000 per week, and 2,000 individuals have signed up for the VOICE newsletter - an influential group that, Bry says, pretty well characterizes their readership: " All city insiders and leaders."
City government and education have driven this period. VOICE said it all - and often first - for issues such as the City Attorney's accusations of securities fraud, taking him seriously when, Bry said, "nobody else did!" Morgan's piece, "Mayor Murphy Will Resign," became a prophecy, and Marsha Sutton was first to explore the merits - and demerits - of charter schools in depth. "We needed to establish credibility early - and I think we did well," Bry says.
The VOICE is a non-profit organization. It cannot endorse candidates. It can take positions on issues and it can, indeed must, raise money. To date, it's raised $100,000 from individuals and foundations. With a new marketing director at the helm, it'll soon launch a new "Friends of VOICE" general membership program. That will be the start of Chapter Two.
If the VOICE's goals are lofty, perhaps they are no loftier than most city publications, yet are demonstrating the courage to push limits, and claim no sacred cows to protect.
At rival SignOn San Diego, content manager Ron James says, "We are both pioneering the future of journalism."
Yet the VOICE still needs a buzz; most of the dozen perfectly in-the-know San Diegans I asked had not visited it at all, and two hadn't even heard of it ("It wasn't in the paper!" one said. thereby countering the threat of declining newspaper readership!) VOICE wants 500,000 readers per month by August 2005.
But that's Chapter Two - - for an enterprise that's determined to produce and publish a VERY long book.

Posted July 2005