@ 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!

I look forward to your ideas.

PS – Emlyn Phillips sy’ ‘na? O’r Bontfaen? Os felly, sut mae frawd, ers talwm?

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.

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.