About The Roanoke Voice
Local News. Real Impact.
Roanoke Voice is a growing independent news, media, and content source created to serve the Roanoke Valley and communities across Southwest Virginia. Our goal is simple: provide timely, useful, locally focused information without allowing sponsors, advertisers, or outside interests to determine what stories we cover.
We report on the stories that matter to people who live, work, travel, and do business throughout the Roanoke Valley. Our coverage includes local breaking news, crime and public safety, traffic and road conditions, severe weather and weather-related events, community happenings, local businesses, developing stories, and issues affecting communities throughout Southwest Virginia.
We also make an effort to cover stories that may not receive attention from larger traditional news outlets.
Why Roanoke Voice?
Roanoke Voice was created as a sister network and companion to the popular Vinton Voice.
Vinton Voice began with a strong focus on Vinton, Virginia, but as the audience grew, so did the coverage area. Vinton is part of the greater Roanoke Valley, and many of the stories affecting Vinton also affect Roanoke, Salem, Roanoke County, and surrounding communities. Over time, Vinton Voice naturally became a source for news throughout much of the Roanoke Valley.
That growth sometimes created confusion. People would see the name Vinton Voice and understandably assume the page covered only Vinton, even though a significant portion of our reporting involved Roanoke and the surrounding area.
Creating Roanoke Voice gives us a dedicated home for that broader coverage.
The two networks will work alongside one another. Some important regional stories may appear on both Roanoke Voice and Vinton Voice, while Roanoke Voice will allow us to expand our focus on Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Salem, the greater Roanoke Valley, and Southwest Virginia.
Built From a Growing Local Audience
Vinton Voice has grown into a major hyperlocal social media presence, generating more than 4 million views per month on Facebook, along with millions of additional views across our websites and other social media platforms.
Roanoke Voice is the next step in that growth.
Instead of trying to fit an increasingly large amount of Roanoke-area coverage under a name associated primarily with Vinton, we wanted to create a separate platform designed specifically for the larger Roanoke audience while continuing to support and grow the Vinton Voice.
News Without the Hassle
We believe local news should be easy to access.
That is why many of our stories and updates can be read directly on Facebook, without requiring readers to purchase a subscription, sign up for a paid membership, navigate endless pop-ups, or hit a paywall just to find out what is happening in their community.
Our website gives readers another way to follow developing stories, longer reports, community information, and local content.
Whether you discover a story through Facebook, our website, or another social media platform, our goal is to make local information accessible and easy to follow.
What We Cover
Roanoke Voice focuses on the stories and information people throughout the region are talking about, including:
- Breaking and developing local news
- Crime, police, fire, and public safety
- Traffic accidents, road closures, and transportation
- Severe weather and major weather events
- Roanoke Valley and Southwest Virginia news
- Community events and announcements
- Local businesses and economic developments
- Consumer and public-interest stories
- Unusual, overlooked, and community-submitted stories
- Photos, videos, and firsthand information from around the region
We are especially interested in hyperlocal stories — the events happening on individual streets, inside neighborhoods, at local businesses, and throughout communities that can sometimes be overlooked by larger media organizations.
Independent Local Media
Roanoke Voice is an independently operated local media network.
Advertising and sponsorship opportunities may help support our work, but advertisers do not purchase control over our editorial coverage. Our objective is to report and share information based on its relevance to the community rather than because a sponsor wants — or does not want — a particular story covered.
We also believe local residents are an important part of local journalism. Tips, photographs, videos, eyewitness accounts, and community information can often help bring attention to stories that otherwise might never be told.
Follow Roanoke Voice
Roanoke Voice is just getting started, and we invite you to grow with us.
Follow Roanoke Voice on Facebook at @RoanokeVoice for frequent news updates, developing stories, community information, photos, videos, and original local content from throughout the Roanoke Valley and Southwest Virginia.
And if you already follow Vinton Voice, there is no need to choose between the two. Vinton Voice will continue serving the community where this network began, while Roanoke Voice gives us more room to expand our coverage across the greater Roanoke area.
Two local voices. One growing regional news network.
Roanoke Voice — Local News. Real Impact.