A very happy new year, dear readers! We’re back at work and ready for a packed 2017 – and hopefully ready to get bigger, better, and more impactful than ever.
It goes without saying, 2016 was the worst thing since ever. And we felt it too – lots happened, for which we weren’t prepared. We were left in the lurch a couple of times, and dealt with doses of drama that kept things spicy – which ordinarily we don’t mind, because life can be terribly boring without spice – but the timing wasn’t always the most opportune. There were times we weren’t sure we would still be swimming, but we’re happy to say that we got through it all. We love what we get to do, and we’re happy to have made it so far; on 16 June 2017, we’ll celebrate our third birthday.
We’re now in a partnership with Mail & Guardian, and are now based at its offices in Rosebank, Johannesburg. We also welcome a new managing editor, Nikita Ramkissoon, the captain at the helm of our ship, who will be steering us towards only terrific things. There’ll be a few changes, of course, that we can’t wait to share with you when the time comes. But we’ll still be the same publication that you know and love.
We’re sticking to the directive that we’ve always had for ourselves – to stay truthful and remain non-partisan in contentious situations, to own our biases, and to tell the stories that are hiding in plain sight. To give platform to those who stay disenfranchised by an unjust system, and to stay, no matter what, committed to trying to make a difference through our work, not only for ourselves, but more broadly in the media industry, and to society as a whole.
“The Daily Vox is about a vision to radically transform journalism in South Africa, and it continues to show that it is possible to find new narratives, even with scant resources,†said our co-founder Khadija Patel when she took up her position as editor-in-chief of Mail & Guardian in 2016, adding that The Daily Vox began as a vision she and Azad Essa shared for telling more inclusive stories about South Africa. “The strength of The Daily Vox remains the young journalists who work with us, and the trust our audience have in us, to tell their stories accurately,†she said.
We remain an independently-funded news website focused on young South Africans. On average, our site receives 200, 000 unique visitors per month, with a further reach of 150, 000 on social media.
So here we are, full steam ahead, ready to leave whatever negativity behind and focus on what we need to. After all, they always say that so long as your audience isn’t aware of chaos that happens behind the scenes, it isn’t real.
