A media manifesto for Wales visible, accountable, diverse

NUJThe National Union of Journalists (NUJ) represents around 30,000 members in the UK, Ireland and continental Europe, across multiple professional sectors including broadcasting, newspapers, public relations and communications, new media and books.

In Wales, members are further represented by the elected Welsh Executive Council (WEC) which meets four times a year to discuss union policy in Wales, trends and developments in the Welsh media, representation of media professionals, liaising with the powerful and influential and communicating with members in various ways, including through its regular newsletter Pendragon.

This document has been produced by the WEC, in consultation with the broader union leadership, and is intended to inform political parties about the challenges facing the media in Wales ahead of the 2016 National Assembly for Wales elections. It is co-sponsored by the Media Reform Coalition.

Contacts:NUJ, Headland House, 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8DP.Tel: 020 7843 3700.Email: info@nuj.org.ukJohn Toner, NUJ Wales organiser, johnt@nuj.org.uk Ken Smith, WEC chair, kennethsmith@cooptel.netPaul Scott, NEC member for Wales, paulthomasscott@yahoo.co.uk

Media Reform CoalitionThe Media Reform Coalition (MRC) was set up in September 2011 to bring together civil society groups, academics and media campaigners in order to contribute to debates about media regulation, ownership and democracy.

It works with partner groups and individuals to produce research and to organise campaigning activities aimed at creating a media system that operates in the public interest.

The MRC is committed to supporting media pluralism, defending ethical journalism and protecting investigative and local journalism.

Contact:MRC, c/o Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, Dept of Media and communications, Goldsmiths, University of London, SE14 6NW.Email: info@mediareform.org.uk

Foreword:At a time of crisis for the media in Wales, we call on all political parties to commit to uphold the values of quality journalism that hold the powerful to account and enable us to celebrate national, regional and local life.

No nation, no functioning democracy, can operate without a strong, probing, inquisitorial and diverse fourth estate.

In a democratic system, laws cannot be made in secret; they cannot be applied and tested unscrutinised in closed courts; the voices of the many cannot be silenced.

In the present climate, with cuts being made to the news-gathering resources of national broadcasters, with publishers increasingly centralising and shrinking newsrooms that serve Welsh newspapers and websites and next to no support for journalistic entrepreneurs and community concerns looking to establish new news start-ups, Wales is in danger of being subjected to institutionalised radio silence.

A Wales where government operates, unreported and unchallenged, is a weaker Wales. A Wales where courts pass judgements that affect individuals and society as a whole, untroubled by the critical presence of the press, is a weaker Wales. A Wales where sporting triumph, eisteddfodau crowning or community campaigning goes unheralded is a weaker Wales.

A strong Wales – visible, accountable and diverse – needs a strong media and now is the time to stand up for that collage of voices it represents, the means by which each of us in this nation connects with one another.

A media manifesto for Walesvisible, accountable, diverse

We seek:• A Wales that upholds the values of quality journalism

that hold the powerful to account and enable us to celebrate national, regional and local life.

• A Wales in which national broadcasters, operating in both Welsh and English, are protected, emboldened and scrutinised by the people they serve.

• A Wales in which quality local news is recognised as both a right and a necessity in a functioning democracy.

• A Wales in which journalistic entrepreneurship and cooperative community engagement in news provision is encouraged, nurtured and rewarded.

Broadcasting:There have been more than 100 job cuts at BBC Wales since 2012 and £10m has been slashed from programming budgets in the same period. Investment in English language programming has fallen by 32% in real terms in the last eight years (1). Despite this, the BBC in Wales continues to play a central role in the lives of the people of Wales. English language television on the BBC reaches 900,000 viewers each week with news, current affairs and factual programmes making up eight of the top 10 most popular series on BBC Wales. The most popular regular programme is BBC Wales Today’s 6.30pm bulletin which attracts an average audience of 293,000 an episode. BBC Radio Wales has an average of 384,000 listeners each week with BBC Radio Cymru attracting 104,000 weekly listeners (2). Almost 3.5m people use the BBC Wales English language website each week with 89,000 using the Welsh language online service on a weekly basis (3).

Funding for S4C has been cut by £18.2m since 2009 (4) but it too remains an important source of current affairs, factual and cultural programming. Its Newyddion 9 news bulletin is watched by 18,000 viewers per episode while the political debate programme Pawb a’i Farn attracts 13,000 viewers per episode. Much like the BBC, the most popular programmes are those concerned with current affairs and factual content. Seven of the most popular 10 series fall into these categories. S4C regularly attracted audiences of above 20,000 for eisteddfodau coverage in 2014/15 (5).

At first glance, ITV Cymru Wales appears to have entered a period of stability. For the first time ever there is a separate Channel 3 licence for Wales, for 10 years from 1 January 2015. It seems unlikely that there will be any significant changes before 2025 to the reduced licence obligations that ITV plc has agreed with Ofcom (ninety minutes of programmes a week, in addition to four hours a week of Welsh news).

ITV plc was hit hard by the recession and successfully pleaded with Ofcom for a lighter regulatory burden. It’s since recovered to make a £400 million profit in the first six months of 2015, on revenue of £1.3 billion. About two thirds of that revenue came from advertising, which was an early beneficiary of economic recovery.

ITV plc is engaged in what it calls “rebalancing” or reducing its dependence on advertising revenue. In practice this means continuing to limit spending on programmes, not in order to pay down debts but rather to service new ones. In the first six months of 2015, ITV went from having a net cash surplus £41 million to net debt of £540 million. Apart from a special dividend of £250 million, the money was spent on acquisitions, including a majority stake in the parent company of the Welsh independent producer Boomerang.

There is no published separate budget for ITV Cymru Wales, though estimates based on Ofcom sources put it at about £7 million. The overall budget for all ITV’s English regional and Welsh output is £64 million, down from over £100 million and now frozen in cash terms. The gap between the programme makers’ ambition and their financial resources is sometimes apparent, for example ITV Cymru

Wales rugby world cup programmes lacked pitch-side presentation, unlike ITV network (and S4C). This is only likely to get worse as programme budgets fail to keep pace with inflation, despite ITV plc’s growing profitability.

S4C’s financial woes impact on the programmes it buys from ITV Cymru Wales. Again frozen budgets make it progressively harder to make high quality programmes and ITV can hardly be expected to make them at a loss. If the remaining DCMS funding for S4C is cut, that could prove fatal to Welsh language current affairs.

Across the sector, public service broadcasters remain key providers of quality employment for creative talent and further cuts will only hit content and reduce opportunities.

We seek:• A strong, publicly-owned, licence fee-funded BBC

and greater oversight and scrutiny of public service broadcasting in Wales by the Welsh Government and Assembly.

• A vibrant and properly-resourced S4C, funded and managed in Wales, and overseen by the Welsh Government and Assembly.

• An ITV Wales that remains committed to the public service provision of news and current affairs programming and plays a central role in shining a light on Welsh life.

• Broadcast media outlets that continue to challenge, question and investigate with news and current affairs at the heart of the output offered by public service providers such as the BBC, ITV Wales and S4C, across all platforms.

Local news:There are six daily newspapers and more than 40 weekly titles across Wales. Local news is also provided online by a number of websites owned and operated by the proprietors of these newspaper titles. Trinity Mirror is the most prominent local news publisher, owning the daily Western Mail, Daily Post and South Wales Echo as well as a stable of more than 10 weekly publications covering areas in both south and north Wales. Trinity Mirror is about to take control of Local World, owners of the daily South Wales Evening Post and two weekly titles – the Carmarthen Journal and Llanelli Star – further concentrating a large part of the Welsh media in that one company’s ownership. Two further dailies – the South Wales Argus and Wrexham Leader – are owned by Newsquest and NWN Media respectively. Newsquest owns more than 10 further weekly titles while local weekly publications are published variously by NWN Media, Tindle Newspaper Group and the Midland News Association.

There has been a troubling reduction in the resources committed to local news. At Trinity Mirror-owned Media Wales, there has been a loss of more than 100 editorial roles since 2003 (6). Since 2008, circulation of the Western Mail has reduced by 53% while, at the South Wales Echo, it is down by 60% (7). Newsquest operates a subbing hub at Newport that employs around 140 journalists who service 250 publications from across the UK (8). The company cut 228 staff in the UK between 2013 and 2014 and a Press

Gazette survey found the group’s journalists were the least happy of all those working for major regional publishers (9). Online consumption of news has undoubtedly affected print circulation figures but cuts to staff, pagination and original and exclusive content have hit newspapers equally hard.

We seek:• Newspapers, websites and outlets based in the

communities they serve.• Publications staffed by professionally-trained paid

journalists.• An exploration through research of what constitutes

a minimum acceptable level of news provision for local communities if a Welsh democratic deficit is to be addressed.

• Protection against closure for historic newspaper titles where alternative proprietors can be identified through devices such as the UK-wide Localism Act 2011.

• Plurality of regional media ownership.

A media manifesto for Walesvisible, accountable, diverse

New start-ups:While there have been some disappointing developments concerning the media in Wales and present trends are worrying, there have been successes where new start-ups, adopting a variety of business models, are concerned.

The cooperative not-for-profit Port Talbot Magnet has filled what has been described as a “gaping black hole” (10) in news provision for that community. Initially launched as a website, the Magnet now produces bimonthly editions that are delivered to 20,000 homes, a development that was made possible because of a £10,000 grant from the Carnegie Trust’s Neighbourhood News initiative. The Magnet was described by the Trust as an “excellent hyperlocal news project” with “strong, professional journalism skills” at its core (11). It has been praised for its campaigning zeal and welcomed by the local community which felt it had been left without a voice. In its report into the outcome of the Neighbourhood News initiative, the Trust stated that policy makers should: “Welcome grassroots local media as a positive asset in contributing to media plurality.”

It continued: “They bring a new voice and market entry at low cost at a time when the number of voices in traditional media is shrinking” (12).

The Caerphilly Observer, a local media enterprise, was launched as a website in 2009 before European grant funding enabled it to produce a fortnightly print product in 2013 with 10,000 copies available free from local outlets. The Observer’s founder Richard Gurner launched the outlet because he was frustrated at not being able to “keep up to date with local news” (13) and the operation won the Wales Media Award for community outlet of the year in 2015.

There are a number of other small enterprises and business models – online and in print from Cardiff to

Welshpool – delivering relevant, quality news to local audiences.

These new projects are demonstrating how media outlets can be sustained when unburdened by unrealistic and destructive profit expectations that have led many of the large publishers to impose cuts that have damaged the quality and standing of their own products.

We seek:• Grant support from an independent or arms-length

Welsh Government funding body for new news start-ups in areas with limited or no local news coverage that demonstrate a sustainable editorial and business case.

• A minimum or agreed quota of statutory notices to be published through new print and online outlets but one that protects the income traditional outlets receive by this means.

• Business and journalistic training and support for potential start-up entrepreneurs or community concerns.

• Administrative and marketing support from the Welsh Government to help new start-ups generate advertising revenue.

Conclusion:With all of the main political parties in Wales acknowledging a diminution in the provision of quality journalistic coverage in the nation and the consequent dangers of an escalating democratic deficit, we believe a laissez-faire approach to media policy is unsustainable.

National crises require intervention and democratic leaders and decision-makers are increasingly accepting there is a need to tackle today’s progressively unsatisfactory and uncomprehensive coverage of Welsh life.

In broadcasting, economic and geographical circumstances have often led to a failure of the market to meet Wales’ media needs but we do not believe that arbitrary and ill-thought-through cuts to national broadcasters such as the BBC and S4C are the answer to those problems. They serve parts of Wales and key elements of the Welsh demographic that might otherwise be ignored and consequently silenced.

Despite moves to online models of reporting, traditional print media operations are shrinking and moving further away from the communities they serve and the concentration of newspaper titles in the ownership of so few companies leaves them at the mercy of short-term commercial, rather than social or cultural, considerations. Titles that might have a future in the hands of alternative proprietors, cooperative or community enterprises must be protected from closure and new and alternative local news

providers have to be encouraged to fill gaps that emerge in regional news coverage.

As Wales and its institutions strive for and achieve greater influence and autonomy, it becomes incumbent on us all to preserve, protect and promote a critical, professional and curious media.

A strong Wales needs a strong media and the people of Wales require a multiplicity of outlets that are in touch with their lives, localities and needs.

A strong media can act as voice, conscience and consciousness and it remains the most effective means by which a nation of three million people can converse, the best means by which we can shape the future together.

A media manifesto for Walesvisible, accountable, diverse

References:1. H. Thomas, ‘BBC Wales cuts impact “inevitable” following

1,000 job losses,’ BBC Wales website, BBC, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-33369208, (accessed 21 October 2015).

2. BBC, ‘BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru lose more listeners,’ BBC Wales website, BBC, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34660914, (accessed 30 October 2015).

3. British Broadcasting Corporation, ‘BBC Wales Management Review 2014/2015,’ BBC, 2015, p3, http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/pdf/2014-15/BBCWalesNationsandRegions201415.pdf, (accessed 21 October 2015).

4. BBC Wales Politics, ‘S4C budget cuts threaten jobs and programmes, Plaid says,’ BBC Wales website, BBC, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-33763748, (accessed 21 October 2015).

5. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2015, p3.6. J. Osmond, ‘Decades of cuts continues at Western

Mail,’ Click on Wales, Institute of Welsh Affairs, 2013, http://www.clickonwales.org/2013/02/decade-of-cuts-continues-at-western-mail, (accessed 21 October 2015).

7. Cumulative ABC circulation data collated by the NUJ.8. National Union of Journalists, ‘NUJ to challenge

Newsquest’s award for “better people management,”’ NUJ website, 2015, https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/nuj-to-challenge-newsquests-award-for-better-people-management, (accessed 21 October 2015).

9. W. Turvill, ‘”Five years ago I loved it, now I’m quitting!” Local journalism survey reveals pay, security and clickbait concerns,’ Press Gazette website, Progressive Media International, 2015, http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/five-years-ago-i-loved-it-now-im-quitting-survey-regional-journalists-reveals-concerns-over-pay, (accessed 21 October 2015.

10. Talk About Local, ‘Neighbourhood News: Final Evaluation Report,’ Carnegie UK Trust, 2014, http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=9e6562b7-d9ca-4324-b8e8-07e05a6cdea7, p12, (accessed 21 October 2015).

11. Talk About Local, 2014, p14.12. Talk About Local, 2014, p28.13. H. Thomas, ‘Caerphilly Observer editor on being a new

kid on the block,’ BBC Wales website, BBC, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-31600641, (accessed 21 October 2015).

Published by the National Union of Journalists on Saturday 7 November 2015