Time for radical solutions
Bubble — By Bethan Jenkins AM on November 25, 2011 7:00 am
Hard times at Media Wales require radical solutions, not endless debate
FOR those of us involved in the media, either employed within it or with a political brief that covers its wellbeing or otherwise, the past week has provided a savage wake-up call.
The National Union of Journalists’ devastating evidence to the National Assembly’s Task and Finish Group into the Future of the Media left us in little doubt that not only did the Western Mail and other welsh newspaper titles find themselves firmly in the last chance saloon, many of them were also on their final drink.
This was compounded this week when it emerged that Media Wales provided what one ex-member of staff cynically referred to as the “annual Christmas present”, announcing a further 14 job losses to go with 22 editorial jobs lost over the summer.
Martin Shipton’s subsequent warning that the Western Mail, the only title to call itself the national newspaper of Wales, might be forced to become a weekly publication should not be setting the alarm bells ringing. They were set going quite some time ago. Rather, it should provide a call to action to anyone who has any interest in the continuation of debate in Welsh public life.
In short, it is now time to start discussing radical solutions.
Despite its falling circulation – which has as much to do with parent company Trinity Mirror’s strategic errors involving its regional papers as with the onwards march of the internet – the Western Mail still passes the ‘vital’ test. What does this mean? In essence, that it is very difficult to participate successfully in Welsh public life without reading it regularly.
Now consider this. It was only this year that the National Assembly was given full law-making powers, giving Wales greater autonomy than it has enjoyed for centuries, perhaps forever. What does it really say about this country if it were to lose one of its national institutions – now over 140-years-old – within a year or two of this milestone event in our history? It is the kind of event that should shame us as a nation.
Of course, the Welsh newspaper industry has been under the microscope before. We knew this before I began efforts to get the task-and-finish group established before the summer, just as I was aware of numerous reports into the subject. So why look at it again? Well, has any of this work made any difference?
It is this inertia in solution finding here in Wales that needs addressing. It was why I wanted new faces – those from the world of new media, for example – to give evidence to the group. The Institute of Welsh Affairs, which now has its own media investigation underway, will be next week. I hope it has more to say than was suggested this week on its blog:
“The best that the National Assembly and Welsh Government can do is to ensure that nothing done in Wales – either by the Welsh Government or local government – worsens the position or, worst of all, pushes the Western Mail into weekly publication.”
That amounts to little more than a do-nothing suggestion. It isn’t the best that the Assembly or the Welsh Government can do because, in all honesty, neither have succeeded in rattling cages at all down the other end of the M4, where the important decisions about the Western Mail and other Trinity Mirror titles in Wales are made.
The time has come where we need to start thinking radical – really radical. So let’s start with a suggestion – take the Western Mail into public ownership, reduce its cover price to little or nothing, and rebuild its circulation in Wales ready to hand back to a not-for-profit, journalist-run co-operative when it is fit and able to take over the reins.
The debate around public subsidy for news has focused on editorial independence. However, the model here not Tass but the bank bailout – except that there will be no rewards for failure. It would rely on Trinity Mirror relinquishing any interest in the title (which we’ll come back to), and ending the company’s association with the paper. For too long, Trinity Mirror has taken profits from Wales while putting skilled workers here on the dole. This ends that practice in one fell swoop.
The takeover, which would look to the current S4/C model of editorial independence, would be accompanied by proper academic research into Welsh media tastes, while the paper could also be compelled to adopt certain elements of public service broadcasting, such as an expansion of its Welsh language coverage as well as heavy focus on online and diversifying into other value-added areas such as the curriculum (remember when the paper used to run a Young Writer of the Year competition?), while retaining that crucial ability to create and lead debate that makes it so different to what the BBC offers.
It’s a fine ideal, but what would it cost? Media Wales’s turnover in 2010 was just above £30m, so let’s say a nice, round third for the sake of any argument. Could the Welsh Government afford £10m a year? Of course it will say it can’t. But let’s not say no until we have examined other models of public ownership across Europe and how they access European funds. I would see academics such as Syd Morgan at the University of Glamorgan (who coined the term “democratic paradox” to link the growth of devolution with the shrinking of Welsh national media), who has carried out studies into areas of Europe such as Catalonia, as crucial here.
Seen purely as a job-saving exercise, it could mean around 200 jobs – that’s £50,000 each. If you think that’s high, I’ve seen up to three times that spent per job here in Wales in the past.
But it isn’t purely a jobs retention exercise (and jobs creation – remember any additional money would be ploughed back into the business). It’s a chance to reset the clock and turbo charge public debate in Wales. It’s an opportunity to re-engage people in what are their basic democratic rights.
There will be those that would be cynical of such a reason, arguing that a reinvigorated Western Mail would help to keep me in office. But that ignores how the media empowers citizens. We all marvel at flash mobs and what social media can do, but nothing gets the ear of a politician quite like a well-read newspaper, so it is in the citizen’s interest to take ownership and direct it according to his or her concerns.
As well as contending with officials’ reluctance, Trinity Mirror – which has a history of overvaluing its assets at times of sale – will want more than will be acceptable – although it has to bear in mind that any prevarication only weakens its bargaining position. Then we can expect trouble from other morning titles – not only London-based UK papers but those here in Wales. But broadcasting isn’t in any kind of trouble because of the presence of the BBC (no matter what the Murdochs might claim), and if those papers care so much about selling in Wales, then print more stories from Wales. Anyway, no one is holding a gun to the head of the reader, who might well choose to pick up a Western Mail to go with their usual choice.
These are huge barriers, and no doubt hundreds more holes that can be picked in such a proposal. It remains to be seen if any of those barriers would kill such an idea, or maybe there is a better proposal for the Western Mail. But that isn’t really the point.
It’s about accepting – really rather urgently – that any kind of action to date has failed and that something out of the box needs to be tried now. I don’t want any of our newspapers failing – and neither should any citizen in Wales. So let’s have a debate along those lines – and be quick about it.
Tags: Media Wales, newspapers, Trinity Mirror, Western Mail
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23 Comments
A weekly Western Mail could be improvement on the status quo. Currently the Western Mail is not local enough for local news, but if you want to know about what is happening in or even get a Welsh slant on news elsewhere in Britain, let alone the rest of the planet, it’s no use there either.
I’d be surprised if it is read by anyone north of the Brecon Beacons, apart from AMs and MPs and visitors to libraries. Not sure if a publicly sponsored hostile takeover by the Welsh political elite would be the kiss of life the paper needs or the final curtain!
We’ve talked to academics to look behind some of the claims of the Western Mail’s current plight
http://welshnewsnot.wordpress.com/tag/western-mail/
Good to see some proper thinking outside the box and a practical proposition, rather than the usual hand wringing we see on this subject.
But why try to give an ailing paper like the Mule the kiss of life? If, as reported, the Mule makes so much money on public notices, why not switch that advertising to a new paper produced by a not-for-profit coop? The WG bangs on about social enterprises being the way forward, so let’s see it put its money where its mouth is. It could have a Welsh-language pull out (such as Herald Gymraeg had in the Daily Post until it was demoted) and get away from the Cardiff bias of the Mule. A truly national paper to challenge the stifling stranglehold of Trinity Mirror.
On a different but related point, because any discussion about the media has to consider the long-term migration of news onto the web. This interesting article on Golwg360.com – http://www.golwg360.com/blog/cyfranwyr-gwadd/58760-dilyn-esiampl-gwlad-y-basg – takes lessons from the online (and often underground) Basque media has become more mainstream.
With a plummeting circulation the Western Mail, little different to the Scottish press with year on year circulation falls of 8%, the newspaper is obviously out of kilter with the most important ingredient, its readership. Much like the Penny-farthing of the 19th century it is time to move on to better things.
We have voted with our wallets.
I think when Peter Black writes “I am not prepared to hand over to Ministers the ‘national newspaper of Wales’ so that they can turn it into their own propaganda sheet”, he is absolutely correct.
Quite the funniest article I’ve read in many a year.
A typical Welsh solution to a Welsh problem – spend public money on something that the market no longer requires, because politicians deem to know better than the people who refuse to but the paper.
The Western Mail is not a public service, it’s a business. It’s failing because the internet is killing printed news media, it’s that simple. The idea of using public funds is incredibly lazy as it’s a hell of a lot easier to use those funds than to encourage private enterprise to invest.
You write of “Trinity Mirror has taken profits from Wales while putting skilled workers here on the dole. This ends that practice in one fell swoop”.
An alternative interpretation is that Trinity Mirror has subsidised a loss making business for many years and they would be within their rights to shut the whole operation down completely.
The core of your argument is empty. People already have a democratic right, they already have the newspaper to purchase, websites to visit, the Assembly to visit, MP’s and AM’s to interact with – but they choose, largely, not to exercise those rights.
Perhaps as a politician your ego finds this a bit of a knock, but that’s the reality.
“expansion of its Welsh language coverage”
Lol! I knew she’s shoehorn that bit in there somewhere.
Just a few suggestions that I could think of that would perhaps improve Western Mail-
An all Wales paper, rather than a south Wales paper (which despite what it says on the front page, it is)
A bit less copied and pasted from the Press Association
Employ good, original, exciting journalists who write good, original, exciting stories rather than the international stories with a Welsh tilt that seem to fill the paper from time to time
Things that I can imagine making the paper worse, or probably irrelevant
Nationalising it
The gesture of saving the WM is admirable. However, if you do that for the Mail, what about other papers in Wales producing an equally, if not more important, local role.
Others have also made the point well too – that if this is something people wanted and were willing to pay for, either from their pocket or their taxes, then surely they’d be doing that now.
Far from being a loss maker, the Mail, so I’m told, has been turning a fairly healthy profit, its just that Trinity Mirror are cutting to the bone to extract more. But, continually cutting journalists isn’t going to make them more money in the long term – or save the paper – it needs a recovery plan, and an owner interested in its future.
I’m glad that at least one AM has come up with some suggestion as to how we can keep a plurality of media in Wales rather than the usual hand-wringing and doing nothing else.
Bold idea. Might be worth considering launching a totally new newspaper though -no baggage or preconceptions. Either way it would generate a lot of energy and interest in the industry and readership in Wales.
People may be indifferent to politics but that is a weakness in a democracy and portends a decline in the standard of government. There is a public interest in having some medium that does invetigative reporting and analytic comment in the political sphere. I agree with Marc Jones there is little point in trying to revive the tainted brand of the Western Mail. The fear that Peter Black and John Tyler express of a government newspaper is also understandable. But that is not the answer; the government should give £10 million away to a trust with trustees who are media experts and not necessarily Welsh. They would put the money out to competitive tender and award it to the best submission for a Wales-based newspaper. It need not be a daily, if a viable business plan could not be constructed for one. But it would have to be at least weekly, with a daily website and provide a given amount of coverage of Welsh politics and current affairs. The winning team would have complete editorial freedom but the trust would remain in existence and could withdraw the mandate if its conditions were not met. The trust would be not for profit but the winning tender must present a sustainable and commercially viable business plan; profits to be reinvested in the business.
Given all the experienced journalists being fired or working for a pittance these days I cannot believe there would not be teams ready to take on this venture.
An informative article. However whats been missed out here by the article and petty commentators is that the Western Mail is actually a very valid national newspaper with genuine worth and genuine readership enjoyment.
To try and dismiss it just because the internet is the new kid on the block is extremely anal and old fashioned; the format is just the messenger ;to try and shoot it down shows idiocy .
The western mail has many qualities and there is no reason why it cannot keep and increase its readership on many platforms including print and online/new media;to think otherwise shows true anal retentiveness. Martin Shipton, Matt Withers and Caroline Hilt are some truly worthwhile contributors to this newspaper ,to name but a few; there is no reason why the Western mail can’t dust itself off and face the future with vigor and strength whatever shape or form that may take
The NUJ’s evidence to the Assembly Task and Finish Group into the Future of the Media in Wales demonstrated that since 1999, Media Wales has made £161.4m in pre-tax profits but that “Little of that huge sum has been invested in Wales”.
Be careful not to equate circulation decline with profitability. There are other ways to make a newspaper work financially.
There is no doubt that the Western Mail provides important public goods by holding Welsh politicians to account and facilitating democratic debate – its disappearance or downgrading would damage the quantity and quality of political discussion in Wales.
But across the Western world the print media has traditionally been a commercial domain, and the prospect of addressing another Welsh problem with more public subsidy is depressing. There has to be a limit to the extent to which Welsh public and cultural life can – and should – be funded by the taxpayer.
Clearly the first responsibility for the viability of the Western Mail lies with its owner. Surely the newspaper faces little competition for Welsh news, aside from BBC Wales. In this context, I don’t understand why it doesn’t follow numerous examples in the US where regional and city newspapers are erecting paywalls (either ‘watertight’ or ‘metred’) around their online content. And what about iPad or Android apps? The long-term future doesn’t lie with the printing press.
Bethan has clearly acknowledged that there may be flaws to her plan but it’s still a welcome contribution and one that goes to the heart of current crisis in newspapers, ownership.
Yes print sales and advertising revenues are in decline and the entire format is challenged by online, but that’s not to say there isn’t a future for printed newspapers.
However that future may not be attractive or viable for the large public companies (with massive debts) that own many newspapers, including the Western Mail.
The challenge now is to figure out a way journalist run co-ops or social enterprises can run newspapers for the benefit of their communities, even nations.
A government supported buy out is one option, it’s for others to come up with alternatives.
It’s good to see a Plaid AM leading the way on this. What’s the point of being a country with a legislative senedd if we have no media to scrutinise and involve the general public in it’s work? Similar to other contributors, I would prefer to see the Welsh Government set up an Independent trust/ Co-operative to start up a new newspaper/online entity for Wales, rather than saving the Western Mail. Such a new entity would also perhaps persuade Trinity Mirror to up it’s game as far as the WM itself is concerned. Such a venture
I want to see Plaid Cymru forcing the other parties to respond positively to this, and come up with other ideas to plug this dire democratic deficit. We also need to take this in a new, radical direction. Why not for example suggest a levy on UK newspapers for the right to publish in Wales – with the levy used to support the new trust/co-operative venture? After all, we are now starting to think about what taxation powers could be feasible and productive here in Wales. Why not tax some of the most wealthy newspaper groups in the UK for printing their wares in Wales? At the very least it would raise awareness about the complete lack of Welsh content that these newspapers carry, and it would serve to intensify the debate .
The problems facing the Welsh media as a whole is very worrying. Not just with the Western Mail, but with both the BBC and ITV planning to cut back on coverage of Wales and the Welsh Assembly.
We need access to information, to help keep the politicans to account, it is all very well talking about the freedom of information act, and the internet, but not many people will go to the bother of using the FOI to gain information, and a lot of stuff online, especially from bloggers, is very unreiable, and it can be tough to tell a bias of a blogger, or their agenda. It is much easier to do that with a newspaper.
Taking a newspaper into public ownership should be one of many options looked at, if we are going to be able to hold the Welsh Assembly to account. That is very important to democracy.
Well theres a surprise!
Martin Shipton at times apppeared to be leading the entire devolution campaign during the recent Referendum.
He and his Western Mail colleagues were shouting from the rooftops in favour of a yes vote and must have provided many hundreds of thousands of pounds of free undeclared advertising through favourable articles for the Yes campaign whilst providing just the odd line or two in response from the NO side.
Sounds like Martin is desperately calling in the favour from his Nationalist buddies in a vain effort to save his job as circulation plummets on a daily basis from Wales’ not so ‘national paper’
Ironic that we saw an English chief reporter working for an English owned newspaper that takes it political orders from the English Labour party screaming about Welsh decisions being made in Wales.
It’s beyond parody.
I’m sure that Bethan would love the Welsh taxpayer to foot the bill for her 26,000 copy a day Welsh Assembly PRAVDA.
“[A]n English owned newspaper that takes it political orders from the English Labour party”?
Beyond parody indeed.
Probably not worth responding to Kevin Mahony’s comments but I don’t think Martin Shipton, the Western Mail’s chief reporter, is English as he was born in Fishguard in 1953.
See the following and a few other places on the internet or phone the Western Mail and ask him.
http://www.election.demon.co.uk/by1997.html
It’s interesting that when a solution for addressing a Welsh problem is suggested that practically all negative critisism of it homes in on, needs to home in on what the effects would be given the apparently inevitable worst case scenario.eg in this case a WG Pravda
Perhaps knee jerk wet blanketry, perhaps an aversion to anything that might strengthens/develop Welsh identity.
Sorry for joining the debate so late!
I wrote a blog about the need to develop a Welsh centric media earlier this year, and suggested something along similar lines. The video clip at the start of this blog post proves the point:
http://mabonapgwynfor.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/sideshow-carwyn/
However while people have responded in mock-horror at the prospect of quasi-nationalising The Western Mail, drawing parallels with Pravda, or in Peter Black’s case referring to it as a Government Propoganda Sheet, they seem to conveniently forget that we already have a publically funded news service – one of the largest in the world – in the form of the BBC.
Does Peter think that the BBC is the ConDem propoganda machine?
It doesn’t help of course that many Government Agencies and Public Bodies have pulled their funding from many news papers (in the form of Advertising and Advertorials) preferring instead to publish their own ‘newspapers’ (see Carmarthenshire County Council for example). Those, on the whole, ARE propoganda sheets. Wouldn’t it be better to put this money into public/independent press?