'Outspoken' comment site Independent Voices launched

Back in March chairman of the Independent and Evening Standard Evgeny Lebedev revealed plans for a new opinions and comment website for the Independent, which he said would be the "home of liberal fundamentalism campaigning".

Just days ago the site, called Independent Voices, went live. An announcement on the platform said as well as publishing comment pieces Independent journalists and a range of new contributors, it will also run "viral campaigns that harness the power of social media to generate news and social change".

The design of the site, which currently sits within Independent.co.uk but has its own URL, was designed to be "much more visually arresting" and the content also differs from the Independent's main newspaper site in editorial focus and values, editor Amol Rajan told Journalism.co.uk.

"Yes it replaces the old opinion section of the Independent's online material, but it's not meant to be editorially the same as the Independent," he explained.

"It's got very different editorial values, it will be more populist and outspoken, it will be more controversial, it will be more in your face – and it will hopefully offend people for the right reasons.

"We're not just an editorial extension of the Independent, we're actually going in a very different direction, with different editorial values."

And the site also hopes to "marry great editorial content with really strong viral campaigns".

"There are some brilliant websites in America like Change.org and Avaaz.org," he added. "We want to marry that digital energy and momentum and buzz and virality with fantastic editorial content, that's the key idea."

The site will feature comment pieces not only from the Independent's existing team of journalists, but will also provide a platform for new writers who wish to contribute.

"It's incorporating all those fantastic bloggers that we've already got and further to that it's about trying to get new bloggers and some new writers involved."

He added: "I think quality of writing has always been a big strength of the paper and the idea is to try and get more of that and have a really energetic platform for it to reach the world."

There is also a curation element to the site, which was designed by 15nine.com, offering a feed of content from across the web.

Rajan summarised what he expects Independent Voices to become. "It might be bits of news, it might be bits of gossip, it might be bits of comment, it might be some fun, it might be wacky ... it's basically bits around the world that we've seen and I think the idea is trying to provide a sort of service to people so that they feel there's always stuff out there."

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