14th February 2008
Colofn Golwg
Rhodri Glyn Thomas’ announcement that £600,000 will be available over three years to create a daily Welsh language newspaper has led to the usual accusations of treachery. But is this obsession with the printed press putting medium before content at a time when that exact medium is itself being sidelined by the lure of the web?
There is something very last century about the campaign for a daily newspaper. It reminds a person of the wave of national institutions created in the past, starting on the banks of the Moldau (the Prague area of Eastern Europe), progressing to the West as far as Aberystwyth (as exemplified in the University, Library and Books Council), by a small nucleus of intellectuals in backward countries who wanted to announce their arrival into the modern age through stunning architecture.
It is similar to the call for a national theatre, which has become a reality in Welsh and is about to happen in English as well, albeit not through building a huge building on the banks of the Taff, but through establishing a travelling theatre. After all, a national theatre is more than a building. It is a corpus of work by the crew and actors.
In the same way, its not the paper that’s important in a newspaper but the news and the journalists behind the news. To me, that means avoiding printing costs and focusing investment on current and exciting content – investigative and civic journalism, podcasts and up-dates 24/7.
Rather than playing catch-up with the rest of the world, why not play leap-frog and show the world how to create twenty-first century news? In the current financial climate, its apparent to me that an independent daily newspaper is not practical.
We are therefore faced with three possible options. The least exciting would be to include a Welsh language newspaper within one of the English daily newspapers (a development on the Herald Cymraeg model). I cannot see this expanding the media in Wales as it lacks autonomy and seems to be nothing more than a token gesture.
Secondly, and perhaps more revolutionary, the paper could follow the example of De Tijid from Antwerp in the Netherlands who offer a daily newspaper in the form of electronic ink (which changes daily) on a special gadget provided solely to subscribers – more Blade Runner than Baner ac Amserau Cymru. This would transform Wales overnight from a nation of late developers into innovators.
The third option, and possibly the most practical, perhaps, would be to create only an on-line newspaper. This strategy work for newspapers like the Netzeitung in Berlin or the Taloussanomat in Finland. This isn’t treachery, but an opportunity.
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Mae cyhoeddiad Rhodri Glyn Thomas taw 600,000 o bunnoedd dros tair blynedd fydd ar gael i greu papur newydd dyddiol Cymraeg wedi esgor ar y cyhuddiadau arferol o frad. Ond ydy’r holl obsesiwn gyda gwasg brintiedig yn rhoi cyfrnwg o flaen cynnwys, a hynny ar yr union adeg y mae’r cyfrwng dan sylw yn cael ei brysur ddisodli gan atyniadau heintus y We.
Mae yna rhywbeth canrif-cyn-ddiwethaf am yr ymgyrch dros bapur dyddiol. Mae’n atgoffa dyn o’r don o sefydliadau cenedlaethol grewyd o lannau’r Moldau i’r coleg (a wedyn y llyfrgell a wedyn y cyngor llyfrau) ger y lli gan gnewyllynoedd o ddeallusion mewn cenhedloedd ‘hwyrfrydig’ oedd am ddatgan eu dyfodiad i’r oes fodern ar ffurf pensaerniol campus.
Mae’n ymdebygu i’r alwad am theatr genedlaethol sydd wedi ei wireddu yn Gymraeg ac sydd ar fin digwydd yn Saesneg hefyd - ond, sylwer, nid trwy adeiladu clamp o adeilad ar lannau’r Taf, ond trwy Theatr teithiol. Wedi’r cwbl, nid adeilad ydy theatr genedlaethol, ond corpws o waith a chriw o actorion.
Yn yr un modd, nid papur sydd yn bwysig mewn papur newydd ond y newyddion a‘r newyddurwyr. Ac mae hynny i mi yn golygu osgoi costau argraffu a chanolbyntio’r buddsoddiad ar gynnwys cyfredol, cyffrous - newyddiaduraeth ymchwiliol a dinasyddol, podlediadau a diweddariadau 24/7.
Yn lle ceisio chwarae ‘catch-up’ gyda gweddill y byd, beth am chwarae ‘leap-frog’ a dangos i’r byd sut i greu newyddion ar gyfer yr unfed ganrif-ar-hugain. O fewn yr amlen ariannol sydd mae’n bur amlwg nad ydy papur dyddiol print annibynnol yn ymarferol.
Erys tair opsiwn felly. Y lleiaf gyffrous fasai cynnwys papur Cymraeg yn un o’r papurau boreol Saesneg (yn rhyw fath o ddatblygiad o fodel yr Herald Gymraeg). Dwi ddim yn gweld y byddai hyn yn ehangu llawer ar amrywiaeth cyfryngol yng Nghymru ac mae perygl o dokenistiaeth a diffyg hunianaeth. Yr ail, ac efallai y mwyaf chwyldroadol, fasai i’r papur dilyn esiampl De Tijid o Antwerp yn yr Iseldiroedd a chynnig y papur yn ddyddiol ar inc electronig (sydd yn newid yn ddyddiol) ar declyn arbennig wedi ei ddarparu i danysgrifwyr. Mwy Blade Runner na Baner ac Amserau Cymru, byddai hyn yn trawsnewid Cymru dros nos o fod yn genedl o ddatbygwyr hwyr i fabwyisiadwyr cynnar. Y drydedd opsiwn, a’r un fwyaf hyfyw efallai, fyddai creu papur ar-lein yn unig. Mae’r strategaeth yma yn gweithio i bapurau fel y Netzeitung yn Berlin neu Taloussanomat yn y Ffindir. Nid brad yw hwn, ond cyfle.
10 Responses to “Colofn Golwg”
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Sion says:
February 15th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Glad yw mentioned Aberystwyth as the fartherst outpost of the banks of the Moldau!
Playing leap-frog sounds good, but it could also leap over the audience. With the exception of the BBC (which is an exception - nobody reads the ITN news website) all successful news websites are based on print publications - Guardian, Times or even Cambria etc. Were the Guardian to stop printing tomorrow readership of its online version would collapse.
A print version gives the web version legitimacy otherwise people tend to think of it as a gloryfied blog. There’s also two fundamental other points: print newspapers advertise themselves (the brand if you like) by being visably on sale in shops etc as well as on the line (something which an exclusive website won’t be able to do) + not everyone today has access to the web or wish to read a newspaper on the web or can not read a webnewspaper as easily and effortlessly as a print newspaper. Maybe in 3 years time this situation will have changed, if so Y Byd would have three years to establish the brand and legitimacy before jumping into this unknown future.
You’re confidence in future developments is good but it could also be wrong. Digital radio is now on the ropes, people are quite happy with analog. Beeching closed all those railways … well, after all predictions were that the future belonged to the car; back in the early 1990s we were all about to work from home, telecottaging, to save money and time, but people quite liked the ‘inconvenience’ of working with other people and travelling to work. The new Gaelic TV station in Scotland is going to be broadcast on tv and not just on the web because not everyone is on the web and having a tv station is important in terms of status. And yes, for languages like Gaelic and Welsh, status is important.
My concern with your ditching of the daily print paper (which would also have an online version of course, so Adam, you’re promoting half the service with the Byd could offer) is that the thing just won’t have legs. People will see it as a glorifyied blog. It also won’t attract new readers as it won’t be visable in everyday life. And the budget really sums it up - 0.2% of S4C’s budget, the same budget as what one tv series, like Y Byd ar Bedwar. What can it do which the BBC website can’t do better?
Supporting the Byd (or a daily Welsh print newspaper) would have been a big vote of confidence in the future of the language which everyone would have been aware of. This option doesn’t do that - it’s a big lack of confidence. Is also only offers half the service (and visable status) which a print newspaper does. I’ve never heard of netzeitung.net although I know of Taz, Die Zeit etc and my guess is that’s true of most Germans.
This looks like a lack of confidence in Welsh masquarading as clever forward thinking.
Emlyn_in_China says:
February 15th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I think Adam has it right here. The market for print newspapers is shrinking and ageing globally, and I don’t see that Wales is an exception. Even if Y Byd could get started, it would be breaking into a declining pool of readers, and would in any case face an uphill battle to woo them away from their established reading patterns. In any case, Welsh-speakers are not homogenous; it isn’t clear that the demographic was sufficiently well-defined. If there’s anything online to clarify who the proposed readership would have been (age, gender, political tendencies, economic profile, etc) I can’t find it, and would appreciate a link. Basically, I would like to see the numbers.
600K may be much less than Dyddiol Cyf had hoped for. On the other hand, it’s cheap and easy to set up an online paper - without sacrificing quality. For example, it would only cost $11.95/month (about 6 pounds) to host it on Yahoo’s servers with unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a content management system that supports multiple authors, lots of reader interaction, and could easily handle the amount of traffic that Y Byd would receive. That leaves most of the funding available for a small staff, and for commissioning high-quality content from experienced journalists. Get the quality content, and you get the reputation and the advertising - and more revenue. It might be less ambitious than the original concept, but it’s got a better chance of success over the long run.
Setting up an online newspaper is hardly revolutionary, but it would be the best way to create a clearly defined editorial position, build up strong content, and tap into a younger, tech-savvy readership that is actually likely to grow, and to stick with the paper over the long-term. It’s also the best way to generate debate, and engage in a conversation with the readership - plus, it’s a much better way to contact the Welsh-speakers outside Wales.
Do you really think this is a lack of confidence in Welsh? It seems to me to be pretty practical and realistic. A traditional newspaper model just doesn’t seem to have a future.
Emlyn_in_China says:
February 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
BTW, @Sion: counter-example to your comment on successful on-line newspapers… Check out the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online, which is internet-only, reputable, and successful:
http://www.atimes.com/mediakit/aboutus.html
heddgwynfor says:
February 16th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Adam, nid nawr yw’r amser i drafod dilysrwydd papur genedlaethol dyddiol trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg! Cafwyd digon o amser i wneud hynny cyn llunio maniffesto Plaid Cymru ar gyfer Etholiadau’r Cynulliad llynedd, a chyn llunio dogfen Cymru’n Un.
Y gwir amdani yw fod Plaid Cymru wedi addo cefnogi Papur dyddiol trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg yn y 2 ddogfen uchod, ond ar ôl derbyn grym, mae’r Blaid wedi torri’r addewid. Pam ddylwn ni gredu y bydd y Blaid yn gwireddu unrhyw addewid arall? Deddf Iaith? Refferendwm?
ceri wyn says:
February 16th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Da ti Hedd a rhag eich cywilydd Mr Price. A oes bosibl credu dim a ddywed y pleidiau gwleidyddol erbyn hyn. Yn sicr, dyw Toto na ni’r Cymry yn byw yng Nghymru ragor ond yn Oz a gorffod diodde dwli a chelwyddau’r dewin Rhodri a’i blaid.
Sion says:
February 19th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Emlyn (and Adam) - I think you’re missing the point with all these references to online newspapers. The first is that Plaid Cymru said they would support the setting up of a Welsh language newspaper. That was the commitment. An online news-service is not a newspaper – in neither in a physical nor symbolic way. Maybe in their next election manifesto rather than offer a free lap-tops Plaid Cymru should offer free legal service to check any manifesto promises or mealy-mouthed interpretation of words.
Secondly, yes the online news services all look very good but you and Plaid miss another important point. There are plenty of daily newspapers in German or Finnish or whatever. There is none in Welsh. The publication of a Welsh language daily newspaper then has massive symbolic significance which an online service barely touches. A daily newspaper would have brought Welsh on to another plane of status and into a new public domain.
Talking of the online newspaper is all very ‘white heat of technology’ but as I’ve said above, there are plenty of examples of ‘future certainties’ like rail, like telecottaging or digital radio, which haven’t caught on. Online newspapers could well be the same. A daily printed newspaper would offer all these online services which you so desire AND a print version. It would have given Y Byd (or whichever company won the tender) a few years to develop a market and answer the need of a market and then the choice to follow one path or another. My mother doesn’t know how to send an email nor even find a website and she’s not that old. An online news-service effectively disenfranchises her and thousands of other Welsh-speakers. Unlike in Germany or Finland, there isn’t another option for Welsh-speakers. It’s like deciding to set up a new Welsh tv channel only to put it on digital or on the web whilst many people only have analogue – Plaid would be against that, so why champion this narrow option? Following the launch of Y Byd (I’ll use the name ‘cos I like it) the vast majority of the Welsh-speaking public and a large number of non-Welsh speakers and visitors will know there’s a Welsh language daily. My guess, is that with an online news-service it will hardly breach the radar. Plaid had the power to do both – a print daily with an online service, and still have the power to do both but I’m afraid we may be given the mono rather than the stereo option.
There is another side to this argument which the online news-service doesn’t answer. The new service will be not work as effectively in increasing literacy in Welsh nor expanding the readership of Welsh-language publications. The online service, by definition, will reach no more people than an online version of the print paper and will (deliberately) not reach the casual browser in Spar or WHSmiths. It will not lie about in say a doctor’s surgery where it could be picked up by persons unfamiliar with reading Welsh, it will not advertise itself (and by default a contemporary Welsh language culture) on the shelves of shops and twenty four hour garages. In short, it will exist in its own ready-made Welsh language ghetto. One big reason for supporting the Welsh daily newspaper was to try and reach out of this ghetto and appeal to casual readers who may only want to check the rugby score or see wedding photos. There’s no added value then to this online service, it preaches to the converted and cuts out non IT using workers (manual workers, older people etc). Mobile phone operators are already noticing that their subscribers use only a fraction of the gimmicks available to them, its all well being geeky about gadgets, but what makes you so sure more than a small minority of people will want to read a newspaper on a mobile phone? It’s not much use if you’ve bad eyesight.
This online service also falls between two stools. It won’t be able to compete with the BBC’s service because it won’t have news clips … so a poor version there. It won’t either have the legitimacy of being a proper paper and the whole profile that entails. It won’t either be as reactive and irreverent as a blog which is cheaper and cheekier.
There’s another more particular point for Plaid Cymru. Many supporters of Welsh are more concerned about the language than the constitution. Now that there is an Assembly and that we will, sometime have a referendum on more power, they won’t be particularly fussed who delivers for Welsh – Plaid, Tory, Labour or LibDems - as long as Welsh regains some respect in its own country, they’ll work and support anyone. Plaid, in their manifesto and One Wales document, set out some exciting proposals which go some of the way to redressing the historical legacy of colonial policies towards Welsh. One strand of Plaid’s manifest had to do with Hard Status – a Welsh Language Act and develop education through the medium of Welsh. The Federal College option is already receiving less money than needed and the Welsh Language Act will be difficult to negotiate for obvious reasons – so the jury’s out on this.
The other options offered by Plaid were what I’d call, Soft Status; daily newspaper, theatre, dotCYM etc. There are all easily achievable, have no knock-on effects (inflationary tendencies if wages are increased, massive amounts of money, legal difficulties nor need to go through Westminster) and are comparatively cheap. In short, these Soft Status promises, are all achievable and within Plaid Cymru’s domain in the Assembly. They are easy tick boxes. In 2011 people could see these tick boxes empty. Why vote Plaid again?
Plaid have been underhanded – Dyddiol’s bid wasn’t the problem. Rhodri Glyn’s announcement two weeks ago could have said; we’ve committed to supporting a Welsh daily paper, Bianchi’s report says this is possible with the right funding for such a paper to succeed, we’re now opening for tender bids to apply for WAG’s support. If WAG had not been happy with a particular bid it would not have won the tender. Or, alternatively, Plaid could have said; we’ve seen the bids, our recommendation are if people want WAG support, they have to cooperate (e.g. Dyddiol and Trinity). Plaid instead have offered £200k which, is just about possible for a company to work with on a bid for a daily paper, but is very tight. It appears (and I hope I’m wrong) that Plaid have deliberately offered such a small sum (and it is small even for the much vaunted online service) rather than say, that they don’t support their own Manifesto promise. In many people’s eyes there’s been a breach of trust here.
In my view, Plaid, it have chosen the wrong approach and may have lost a golden opportunity to take Welsh into a new domain. I hope there will still be a bid for a print daily newspaper, a newspaper which will naturally include an online service.
Emlyn_in_China says:
February 20th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Hi Sion, thanks for the detailed answer.
There’s a number of issues all mixed up here, some of which I’m able to discuss, and others that I’m not.
I can’t talk about Plaid’s manifesto commitments; I wasn’t around at the time, so I can’t say exactly how “support” for a newspaper was promised or what exactly it was understood to mean.
I’m not advocating an online-only paper purely out of tech evangelism; I think it’s a rapid, and cost-effective method to establish a brand and get quality writing out to important and influential demographics, as well as to establish the credibility of the writing and the editorial direction.
I do want to come back to a lot of your other points, and to put to you some of the other reasons for my doubts about Dyddiol Cyf’s proposal. However, I’m in the middle of moving at the moment, so I’ll come back to this once I’ve arrived in Beijing and have more time.
Sion says:
February 21st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Emlyn - yes, I’m interested in your arguments for an online service only. Although I think it’s a ‘mono’ option as opposed to a ’stereo’ one, I also appreciate the financial and technological reasoning for your and Adam’s stand.
I look forward to your ideas.
PS - Emlyn Phillips sy’ ‘na? O’r Bontfaen? Os felly, sut mae frawd, ers talwm?
Daniel Cunliffe says:
February 25th, 2008 at 11:29 am
If the Asia Times is highly successful I would hate to see what a failure looks like. I visited the site today (25 Feb), the most recent story was the 22 Feb. Now OK, perhaps they don’t publish weekends and the time zone is different. However on the 22 only 11 stories/features were published - including a book review and several features (not news stories). The latest news from Japan was the 13 Feb and the latest on the Asian Economy was the 3 Jan. If this is what the WAG mean by “the establishment of a Welsh language daily newspaper”, they can pay me £150K a year and I’ll give them something better than the Asia Times (I thought it would be greedy to ask for all of the £200K)
Emlyn_in_China says:
March 28th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
@ Sion: yr un… Siwmae byt, ers lawer dydd… Wedi sefydlu braidd ym Meijing nawr; wrth gwrs, lot wedi digwydd yn y cyfamser… Eniwe, gobeithiaf sgwennu mwy ar pwnc cyn bo hir.
@ Daniel: what’s your point? Of course, perhaps I should have been clearer in pointing out that the Asia Times (AKA ATOL)is not a ‘popular’ paper for a small market in the sense that Y Byd was intended to be for Wales; but it is nevertheless an internet-only publication that has some pretty incisive reporting. Take a bit of time to read Pablo Escobar’s reports. Of course, could a better job be done with the kind of money Rhodri Glyn and the WAG offered? Yes! Obviously! So go and get it done! Or are you waiting for someone else to do it…? After all, as I understand things, the opportunity is still there to submit a bid…
Also (still speaking @ Daniel), the comment “If this is what the WAG mean by “the establishment of a Welsh language daily newspaper”” etc is meaningless and misdirected. Those are my words (clarified above), and I have no connection of any kind with the WAG. If you think you can do better than ATOL, I invite you to get your act together and do it!