How we discover, access, and receive news has changed substantially over the past two decades.
Advances in technology, the internet, smart phones and improved connectivity has seen a huge shift online. Newspaper sales have fallen year on year, they are now nearing a point where they will cease to be commercially viable.
Traditional news providers have struggled to make sufficient returns from online digital advertising, the reliance on page views to generate revenues has led to publishers creating more populist content, with public interest journalism becoming less and less prominent.
Audiences for news have fragmented, some access news through social media, others from radio and TV, some still buy newspapers and visit news websites, many will use a combination from the afore mentioned.
What is clear from our previous practical experience of running a news service and extensive research is that a public interest news website, that uses social media to direct audiences to said website, isn’t sustainable in todays crowded media market.
That’s why we at Talking Wales are taking a new approach.
We’re launching a truly multi-platform service ensuring that wherever people access their news we’ll be there providing it. A national news led radio station for Wales available online, via smart speakers or our dedicated smartphone App, a news website updated regularly, content shared across social media in relevant formats, not clickbait designed to lure you to a website, email newsletters along with online and in person events and discussions.
It’s not just our service that’s innovative our ownership model is as well. We’ve set up as a community benefit society, a cooperative model that means we’ll be answerable to you our shareholders, and as required by law every penny of profit we generate will be reinvested into the service, employing more journalists providing improved news provision to communities across Wales.
We will soon be conducting a pilot phase and publishing our share prospectus which will allow you to own a stake in Talking Wales, raising the funds required to launch the new service in 2024.
In the meantime if you would like to support our work you can make a donation via the link below.
Diolch
Huw Marshall
Founder
www.talking.wales
Huw Marshall is the former head of digital at S4C. He has an in depth knowledge and understanding of the UK and Wales media landscapes and over the past three years has developed a comprehensive understanding of the news industry in Wales. He has a network of connections within the traditional media industry as well the emerging technologies sector.
He helped launch The National Wales on March 1st 2021 following over 2 years of development through New Media Wales with the financial support of individuals via Patreon.
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