47.8 F
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

From Strength to Strength: Jewish Voice Reaches out to a Global Audience

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

Since my tenure as news editor of the Jewish Voice began roughly one year ago, our humble publication, I’m proud to say, has undergone something of a transformation. Our format is a fair deal more sleek than it was just twelve months ago. Our content has vastly improved in both quality and originality. Indeed, I’d dare say we could be compared favorably to any Jewish newspaper in New York. Of course, our newspaper is different in that it is an actual newspaper. That is to say, we are not a journal of opinions and divrei Torah that, as an afterthought, features a few news stories. We are a news publication that also features opinion pieces from some of today’s top columnists, and that always makes room for divrei Torah and Yom Tov-related content.

Some people don’t like that. Some people believe that as a Jewish newspaper, our responsibility is to focus exclusively on happy, inspirational anecdotes, and leave the rest to the Times, the Post, and the New York Daily News. We beg to differ. We feel that someone out there needs to be reporting on current events, real news, and offering an authentically Jewish take on what’s happening in the world around us. Since you are reading this JV editorial, we’re thinking you probably share our sentiment.

Once I found my niche here at the JV, my colleagues and I went about bringing our paper to an audience beyond New York City and the other select East Coast markets where our paper can be found. Our first stop was Facebook. We immediately drew hundreds and hundreds of fans, many of them devout Jews, others fervent Christian Zionists who appreciated our coverage of Israeli defense and counterterrorism news. A surprisingly large percentage of our new fans hail from India, where surveys have shown that public opinion supports Israel (vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict) even more than here in America. No doubt, India’s own experience with Islamist extremism has provided them with a certain degree of insight that some of us in America lack. And now, thanks to the Jewish Voice Online, they have an alternative source for news on Israel and the Jewish community in general, one free of the anti-Semitic bias that so pervades the international media.

Having established an online presence via Facebook, we then performed (and are still performing) a complete overhaul of our homepage, JewishVoiceNY.com. And the results have been tremendous. At the present rate of growth, we’re looking forward to several thousand visitors a month. In time, our online readership may well outpace that of our print edition.

More importantly, our upgraded website means we are no longer confined by the restrictions of our print format, neither in terms of schedule nor in volume. The Jewish Voice comes out once every week, and for the time being, our biggest update online is on Wednesdays. But soon we hope to have a steady flow of content, every day, 24/6 (of course, we don’t report on Shabbat). But to make that happen, we need your help!

To make the Jewish Voice the world-class news source it was always meant to be, we need your participation. Are you a talented writer with a passion for Jewish culture, faith, politics, or any of the subjects the Jewish Voice covers? You too can be a JV correspondent! In fact, some of our best, hardest hitting reporting has comes from tips (or entire stories) provided by readers of ours with an active interest in the community. (Write us at [email protected] to learn more!)

But even if you’re not able to devote that kind of time and energy to support Jewish unity and/or the Israeli cause, there are other ways you can help. For instance, the Jewish Voice Online (again, that’s JewishVoiceNY.com) is seeing an ever-increasing flow of traffic. Yet very few of our online readers refer our stories via their own social networks, or take a moment to offer any feedback. Right now, leaving insightful comments on Jewish Voice news and editorials is one of the best things you can do to help. Your comments will inspire others to comment and share, and the feedback helps us provide you, the reader, with a better overall experience. You can also do that by referring those of our stories that interest you to your friends, via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, e-mail… it’s all available at the click of a button!

The last twelve months have been a period of tremendous growth for the JV. We are thrilled that so many people around the world have found that the Jewish Voice resonates with their own. Thank you for helping us to continue that mission!

-D. Perez

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -