Timeline
The Voice Actors in the News Timeline
- September 1999: While serving as a staff news reporter for toonzone.net, lifelong voice actor and animation fan Craig Crumpton is motivated to begin publishing a voice actors newsletter/”fanzine” and decides to call it “Voice Actors in the News.”
- November 16, 1999: The title “Voice Actors in the News” is first used as a headline for a tribute article to animation voice actor Mary Kay Bergman who died tragically on November 11, 1999. But the timing seemed inappropriate to introduce the newsletter, so the headline was changed to “Farewell, Mary Kay Bergman.”
- January 8, 2000: The premiere issue of “Voice Actors in the News” is published at toonzone.net and becomes the web’s first fanzine devoted entirely to voice actors in animation. An archive copy is unfortunately not available, but it featured Nancy Cartwright, Jonathan Winters and the casts of Rugrats and Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast.
- July 25, 2000: Craig launches The Voice Actors Appreciation Society on egroups.com (later known as Yahoo Groups) to offer a community for voice actor fans.
- July 29, 2000: Although still a contributor at toonzone, Craig begins self-publishing his newsletter as an exclusive to The Voice Actors Appreciation Society. (Archives of most back issues are available through a free group membership.)
At the close of 2008, the newsletter had over 500 subscribers, but Craig desired to reach a wider, less-exclusive audience than those who were already voice actor fans.
- March 6, 2009: The newsletter is upgraded to a WordPress blog.
- April 3, 2009: In less than a month, Craig publishes his 100th entry and is already averaging 40 readers per day.
- November 15, 2009: Craig drops in after an extended hiatus to commemorate the blog’s 10th Anniversary.
- January 2010: A proposal is made and an offer is accepted to host “Voice Actors in the News” at toonzone.net. A long process of redesigning the blog and archiving the database begins, thanks to the efforts of TZ’s admin Eileen “Harley” Cruz and supertechno guru-wiz guy “Zedd.”
Within a few months, a Facebook page is created for the blog.
- August 20, 2010: VOICEACTORSNEWS.COM is registered as the new domain.
- Meanwhile, between May – November, 2010, the blog staff expands from one to eight with the addition of contributors Doreen Mulman, Jeff Birnbaum, Mark Allen Jr, Ashley Trayder, Sonia Lai, Rosemary Ward, and the blog’s first contributing industry professional Kyle Hebert.
- November 16, 2010: 11th anniversary of service to the fandom, along with other milestones achieved in the same month:
- 150,000 blog views.
- 800 followers on Facebook.
- 500 followers on Twitter.
- 600th post on the blog since March 2009.
- September 3, 2011: Craig announces a sneak preview of the new site while serving as moderator for the Cartoon Voice Actors panel at Dragon*Con 2011 in Atlanta, GA.
Also during September, Valerie Tidwell and Andre Smith join the contributing staff.
- November 1, 2011: Facebook page hits 1500 “likes”; Twitter page hits 900 “followers.” A week later, John J. Galbo is added as the 12th staff contributor.
- November 16, 2011: 12th anniversary celebrated with the official announcement of the blog’s relaunch with a nifty new design and new host site, toonzone.net.
Additionally, “The Voice Actors Appreciation Society” is given a new home at toonzone as the official community and forum for “Voice Actors in the News.”