Further job cuts were today announced in Media Wales; Trinity Mirror further squeezing the life out what is left of our Welsh media. I have come to the conclusion that the Western Mail's shrinking market and influence is as much by design as by accident or recession.
I am the first to recognise that the advertising market for printed media has shrunk hugely in recent years and that this plays a far more significant role than the cover charge in paying for the running of a daily newspaper. There is also the argument that the free Cardiff 'Metro' has hit sales hard, not to mention the greater reliance for news through the internet. The problem with this argument, is that the Western Mail have done nothing to counteract the threat of the Metro and in today's job loss announcements, staff actually working on the website were being made redundant.
The Metro really is a pathetic newspaper, with precious little local coverage and a series of recycled 'UK' stories filling its pages. I was particularly incensed when they ran a story about the recent tragic death of a Cardiff City fan in London, instantly following the Fleet Street line of blaming a Swansea fan - a wholly untrue smear. My other concern is how the Western Mail is marketed and delivered. The marketing is now carried out from Liverpool and the deliveries are dealt with by WH Smith; the Western Mail fleet being a thing of the past. I often have to go to two or three shops in the morning to find a copy of the paper in the centre of Cardiff, as many only now stock literally a handful and of course, deliveries are down to the priorities of WH Smith.
The NUJ have predicted this week that it is the aim of Trinity Mirror to go weekly with the Western Mail and I believe them. I see a Monday publication to cover the weekend sport, jobs adverts and a few political articles thrown in to pretend that it is still relevant to the changing political scene within Wales. Wales can only suffer from such a move, but what can we do when all the influential strings are pulled by the paper's bosses in London? Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Apparently most of the WM's profits come from printing public notices from the Welsh Government.
ReplyDeleteThe WG must publish these in a national newspaper by law, and the WM has a monopoly regardless of how many people actually read them.
A weekly paper is enough to publish these notices, together with the jobs pages which is its other big money spinner, and they won't actually have to print much actual news.
Very depressing and I'm not sure what the answer is.
The Metro is owned by Trinity Mirror.... And yes its depressing, it has a few articles of local arts coverage, and once in a blue moon some local sports coverage and nothing on local politics or current affairs ever! Well maybe if they are covered in the other English editions of the Metro.
ReplyDeleteActually I think that the Metro is owned by the Daily Mail/Northcliffe, although it's Welsh edition is printed by Media Wales (owners of the Western Mail)
ReplyDeleteAh my error - interesting that some articles appear to be word for word in both the Metro and the Western Mail - certainly the TV coverage and listings are near identical.
ReplyDelete