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OF WALES & THE WELSH
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Greg Lance – Watkins
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Hi,
New Welsh media outlets built on wobbly foundations
By MARCUS STEAD
MORE THAN 265 local newspapers have closed in Britain since 2005, but the last week has seen the launch of three new publications in Wales, albeit run on highly-questionable business models.
Newsquest, owned by American giant Gannett, has slashed staff and budgets across Britain in recent years, but on St David’s Day they launched a Welsh online equivalent of little-read Scottish title and SNP mouthpiece The National.
The National Wales Editor Gavin Thompson
In reality, no such company as New Media Wales exists. It is a front for Huw Marshall, former head of digital at Welsh language broadcaster S4C, who is not a journalist, but does have an extensive background in harassing politicians and members of the public on social media.
Marshall pocketed £5,500 from an initial crowdfunding page, which he said allowed him to ‘dedicate a good chunk of time researching the market and developing a detailed business plan’.
But what of the money supporters pledged on Marshall’s ongoing Patreon fundraiser, which he originally claimed would fund the news service and still states they need a ‘minimum of 500 subscribers to launch’?
Marshall wrote: “Our ambitions are high, we want to create a Welsh alternative to Radio 4, TalkRadio, 5live and LBC and bring video discussions and debates to as wide an audience as possible.”
These ‘ambitions’ seem very lofty, considering Marshall has 284 individuals pledging a total of just £1,642 per month.
Newsquest’s reasoning for wanting to partner with Marshall to create a website that essentially pools content from existing company titles in Wales remains a mystery.
Rivals Reach Plc tried to gazump the launch the previous week by creating a separate Newport edition of the Western Mail, which had a Wales-wide circulation of just 8,419 in the second half of 2020, down from more than 30,000 in early 2010.
On 24 February, Pembrokeshire-based newspaper publisher Herald News UK announced it was bringing forward the launch of its Herald.Wales website, which happened two days later. Political editor Jon Coles said: “We were a founding patron of New Media Wales with whom we were looking forward to working with to provide independent news online.
“When New Media Wales partnered with Newsquest, I was surprised and disappointed. Our plans had to change and so we brought our launch date forward.”
Herald publisher Thomas Sinclair is no stranger to controversy, having twice been fined and reprimanded for breaking court reporting restrictions.
In 2019 he came under fire from the National Union of Journalists after defying court orders over money owed to journalists and photographers.
The previous year, founding shareholder Erfan Felix Al-Talal was jailed for nine years over drugs and money laundering offences.
To view the original article CLICK HERE
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Greg_L-W.
NB:
in the interest of accuracy material in the main text in blue was written by someone other than myself.
When in black text the wording ‘Welsh Language’ means the ‘Language of the peoples of Wales’ and is therefore the majority language ie ‘English’
The ancient language of parts of Wales, varied as it is, as spoken by a tiny minority in Wales is called ‘Welsh’ or ‘the ancient Welsh language’
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Of Wales & The Welsh 