Newspaper job losses in South Wales

I have already blogged about job cuts earlier this year at ITV Wales and Trinity Mirror. The whole media industry in Wales is shrinking- it was never adequate to start with. Despite the great talent in broadcasting and journalism in Wales, and the fact that people trust Welsh and local-based media the most, it has been a disastrous year. Broadcasting should be devolved to the Assembly. Who will look after its interests in Wales if not?

This week has seen more media cuts announced by Trinity Mirror, this time in our local Valleys papers. Newspaper offices could face closure in Aberdare, Ebbw Vale and Neath. Up to ten jobs are expected to go. Some of the local Valleys papers will now have to merge together, leading to these distinct and trusted local titles being lost. Trinity Mirror is a FTSE listed company with a profit of over £60million in 2007. This centralisation and loss of jobs will no doubt result in even bigger profits for the company next year!

This is a crisis and needs a solution. The appetite for news, including local news, is as big as ever as the popularity of free but poor-quality titles like the Metro in London demonstrates. Could there be an opportunity for a more relevant Welsh alternative? The Metro makes money from advertising. Perhaps what Wales needs is a grant scheme to help establish our own Welsh media sector to compete with Trinity Mirror's near-monopoly. I'd be interested to hear other people's ideas.

Disastrous ITV Wales Cutbacks

The news of Ofcom's report is disastrous for the Welsh media industry. Scaling back regional programming will undoubtedly result in more job losses and lower quality television as well as less coverage of Welsh affairs.

It comes after job losses at the BBC, Trinity Mirror and just a week after news that Big Issue Cymru is to close its operation in Cardiff to move to Scotland. Under Ofcom's proposals ITV Wales will be severely downgraded, leaving BBC with a near-monopoly. Ofcom's light-touch regulatory approach has clearly failed both the industry in Wales and the viewers. My personal view is that Ofcom should be abolished and that its responsibilities for regulating the media in Wales should be devolved to the Assembly.

Facebook users can join a group I have set up to campaign against these cuts.

Conference Blog

I'm at the Plaid Cymru Conference in Aberystwyth, and yesterday I spoke at a fringe meeting held by the National Union of Journalists.

It was clear from the meeting that the future of the media industry in Wales is far from rosy. There are journalist job losses at Trinity Mirror- who have a near monopoly on Wales' print media- at the BBC and at ITV. If ITV collapses, the BBC will have a monopoly on Wales' broadcast media.

One questioner asked how we could inform people about the issues in a future referendum without a decent Welsh media. A pertinent question- and difficult to answer.

It was the first time that the NUJ had attended the Plaid Conference, and I hope this heralds the beginning of a productive relationship between Plaid and the NUJ.