Co-editor of The Voice of the Maltese Joseph Cutajar. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

A bilingual online magazine has gained the biggest circulation of any Maltese language publication ever issued in Australia, according to its founders.

The Voice of the Maltese, which goes out every fortnight to the Maltese diaspora, is growing in popularity and will even start being printed for those who prefer reading a hard copy.

The news comes following the demise of the newspaper The Maltese Herald, which for 52 years kept the Maltese living in Australia up to date on the events taking place in Malta.

As with other news media, The Maltese Herald, issued from Sydney, battled its way through the rise of modern means of communication and a lack of support from the business industry. Some of its articles started appearing online but its last issue came out on April 30, 2013.

The Voice of the Maltese is co-edited in Australia and in Malta by seasoned journalists Lawrence Dimech and Joseph Cutajar, who also does the lay-out. The two do the work on a voluntary basis.

Every fortnight, Mr Cutajar, working in Malta, and Mr Dimech in Australia round up the news from the islands, letters from readers, features and sports, and they even include a page about Maltese orthography called Biex tikteb Malti tajjeb.

One of the publication’s aims is in fact to lend a lifeline to the Maltese language in the diasporas outside of Malta.

“We believe the publication is of service to the Maltese living abroad – but not only. It promotes Malta, as it is also emailed to readers of other nationalities who love Malta and are interested in the island,” 72-year-old Mr Cutajar said, noting that The Voice was probably also popular because it was apolitical.

Mr Cutajar kicked off his reporting career with Union Press in 1963, moved into sports journalism, and worked for Libyan Broadcasting and later on with the Tripoli Post, among others.

We believe the publication is of service to the Maltese living abroad – but not only. It promotes Malta, as it is also emailed to readers of other nationalities who love Malta

He was approached in 2013 by his friend Mr Dimech, who at the time was putting together a newsletter called Leħen il-Maltin tal-Awstralja.

The two started working on The Voice of the Maltese and so far have raked in at least 15,000 subscribers from Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, Greece, Belgium, France and St Kitts and Nevis, among other countries.

These include clubs and organisations who in turn send it out to their members or print it and distribute it within their community.

Although the precise circulation cannot be calculated, the two editors estimate it is read by at least 20,000 people.

As it continues to grow, Mr Cutajar appealed for contributions from Maltese living in other countries apart from Australia and for advertising from businesses, so that the publication could be kept running.

Mr Cutajar noted that even the Australian authorities had recognised the publication as a link with the Maltese-Australians.

For the first time, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote a Christmas and New Year’s message to be published specifically in the online magazine.

The publication is sent out to subscribers in PDF format and as a link to be read in flipbook format. It can also be downloaded from the Facebook page called The Voice of the Maltese.

Readers can send a request to maltesevoice@gmail.com to start receiving the paper.