WHAT ON earth has happened to the Western Mail, sometimes known as Llais y Sais?
The treatment of the death of Ceredigion farmer-poet Dic Jones has revealed that whatever improvements may have started to occur, the paper should still rapidly relocate itself to Bristol, where it once fondly hoped to be cock of the roost, writes Clive Betts from the Assembly press gallery (during sessions).
Although the Caerdiff people who ran the Western Mail - with bossing from the in-blows who thought they knew more than them – imagined the paper existed for the good of the South (the capital S was crucial, for the true provincials they were) Wales mercantile class, its true strength was in the West.
A good way of checking was to note the newspapers the bus drivers were reading (not when driving their vehicles, we hope).
In Caerdiff it would usually be the Sun (greatly by now outselling the Mirror, the other product from the Trinity Mirror group, owners of the Western – of England – Mail).
But down West, much further than Llais y Sais journalists would often venture, your lowly bus driver would be as likely to have the WesternMail propped beside his wind-screen.
Ring up the Western Mail and ask them what percentage of households in each council area purchased the paper. Down West the figure used to approach 50 per cent. Way, way above the Cardiff figure.
The Llais understood that some years ago when it launched a series of regional editions each morning. In those days, each region (a sort of old-style county) had its own edition.
Historically, the edition name was printed on the front page, and did little more than acknowledge the changes to the news that happened as the print time for each edition approached. Usually, in addition one page would be editionalised, carrying news only for that edition’s area.
But clearly someone in Caerdiff realised at one time that the regional editions could mean much, much more. So the news input for these editions suddenly rocketed – to the alarm of journalists who had to produce the copy.
Eventually, the “editions” became almost weekly supplements. NUJ members in Cardiff complained – not only about the extra work they were having to do, but about their fear that these new-style editions would eventually put local weeklies out of business.
The point is that the Western Mail in those days knew the power of the regions.
But now no more. Anything west of Fairwater (the “posh” part of Ely, which is otherwise a pretty awful council estate) is in the back of beyond (as if it lay west of Uxbridge, to a Fleet Street journalist).
That is where the death of Dic Jones, the sitting Archdruid, comes in.
At 75, he was too ill to attend the recent Eisteddfod at Bala (did the Western Mail mention that fact ?).
Mr Jones was a character in bardic and eisteddfodic terms. And not because he was often on telly, but it was because he was such a character that he was on telly and radio.
In his life and his language, he symbolised the West. The Western Mail was created for people like him. But of course the “Western” of Llais y Sais didn’t really extend as far as the Bristol portal of the Severn Tunnel.,..
It is now not much more than Steve Dube’s weekly farming pages which remind us of the land that Dic occupied. This was real Western Mail territory.
But what did Mr Jones get on his death ?
Ten paragraphs on page 10 under a single-column headline, until it was stopped by an advert, in a spot where you would normally find the Llais’s News Bulletin snippets. No picture.
Who wrote it ? No name.
Smells to me very like a piece from the Press Association’s UK wire, which is sent to everyone in the UK. Not something from the Welsh wire because the Western Mail no longer subscribe to that wire because they “can’t afford” it – which explains why their Assembly converage can sometimes be rather lacking.
So, the story in the Western Mail about Dic would be the same one went to the Aberdeen Press and Journal.
The Llandudno Daily Post’s piece was at least written by a named-reporter. Eryl Crump’s piece contained a lovely line about Dic’s love of Bala, and that he would have “loved to live there if he had to choose anywhere else away from his native Ceredigion”.
Had that happened, he would at least have then been relieved of the need to consider buying the Western Mail anymore. Bala is in Daily Post land where almost the only people buying the “national newspaper of Wales” are those driving through to or from Caerdiff.
I noticed that too, with disgust. The same paper makes a big deal about Charlotte bloody Church being “the face of Iceland” though. They may as well rename it The Cardiff And Newport Mail.
Enjoy your rest Dic, you’ve earned it, and your poetry will live on.
An absolute disgrace and an insult to every Welsh person – especially Welsh speakers for whom Dic was held in affection and esteem.
I thought it would have made front page news but no chance – not even a photo. Cywilydd!!
[...] is chiefly the preserve of Clive Betts and could easily read as a Plaid-sympathising blog. See, this, for [...]
I agree. The coverage was very poor and describing itself as the national newspaper of Wales is stretching things to put it mildly. They do have a few good journalists but there is clearly a su-editor/editorial problem and there always has been.
In relation to Fairwater, your comment was a little snotty and also failed to mention that in Fairwater lies Ysgol Plasmawr, one of the most impressive Welsh Medium Schools in the south-tut tut.
The lack of anything substantial related to Wales in their columns is the reasonwhy I gave up buying the Western Mail earlier this year. This after having it delivered for 33 years, it has become total rubbish with no relevance to Wales at all. It is no better than the tabloids that own it. Sport, especialy Rugby, meaningless and shallow celebrity gossip is all they are concerned about.
The sooner we have a daily newspaper relevant to Wales the better. But there, that will help close the gap between the North and the South of Wales. just like not doing anything about the A470. The very last thing that is wanted, is to bring the whole of Wales together.
The sooner that bloody rag folds, the better. And all the other sh*t Welsh (not) media. Don’t worry. We can replace them with our own internet-based news. But that’s up to us. Get working everybody!
Ian clearly missed the reference to Fairwater, which is next door to the Ely council estate, one of Cardiff’s housing disasters. I was referring to an individual on the Mail who is said to have come from Ely – although the only family connection I knew of for sure was with Fairwater, and is nice little village green !
There was a commercial attempt not long ago to found a replacement daily paper for Wales, in English. Unfortunately, the financial climate wasn’t quite right …
Pelagius can dream about an internet-based replacement for a daily paper. But how are you going to pay the journalists ? Even Mr Murdoch hasn’t worked out how.
Productions such as the Huffington Post are not much more than vanity publishing, funded by an individual or small group for their own glorification. Admittedly, the Post’s material is very good. But the US has 600m people – which means more chance of finding someone seeking the vanity. The UK’s got 60m, and Wales 3m.
The Post seems to be politically-liberal. Most vain people are tories, and if they’ve got the money, pretty right-wing too. Economics mean dead trees will remain the future of publishing.
Somewhat odd that Dic Jones gets a better obituary in The Independent, a paper that normally ignores all outside the M25, than he does in the Western Mail – http://bit.ly/VdC8m
I wondered whether Dic Jones got mentioned anywhere else. Regrettably not. But at least the Independent takes notice of Wales – even if it is only through obits. None of the other London papers does, apart from occasional pieces on the Graundiad.
How different is the situation in Scotland !