Home - Talking Wales

Re-imagining the news media landscape of Wales

talking wales - A new kind of news service for Wales.

How we discover, access, and receive news has changed substantially over the past two decades.
Advances in technology, the internet, smartphones, and improved connectivity have all contributed to this change.

News audiences have fragmented. Some access news through social media, others from radio and TV, and some still buy newspapers and visit news websites.

Our previous practical experience running a national news service and extensive and continuing research show that a sustainable public-interest news service for Wales requires a new approach.

We’re creating a genuinely multi-platform service. Ensuring that wherever people access their news, we’ll be there to provide it. This includes the first 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, email newsletters, and online.

We’ll be developing community newsrooms in locations across Wales, embedding ourselves in local communities, listening to people’s stories and concerns and giving them the voice many feel they lack.

Our service is not the only innovative aspect of our business. 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. Every penny of profit we generate will be reinvested into the service, employing more journalists and improving news provision to communities across Wales.

During the 2024 General Election, we ran a successful pilot service.

We are now preparing our community share prospectus, which will allow you to own a stake in Talking Wales and raise the funds required to launch the new service in 2025.

Your support is greatly appreciated and valued. You can help us during our pilot phase by clicking the donate button below. Every contribution makes a difference.

Diolch

Huw Marshall
Founder
www.talking.wales

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What's the plan?

How are we going to achieve it?

The future of news in Wales

The nature of news consumption is changing, and in Wales how people interact with media is markedly different to the rest of the UK. News provision in Wales has been …

Schedule

We worked with Cwmpas Wales, formerly the Wales Co-operative Centre to create the best cooperative structure for the company. There were several cooperative company structures available to us, we wanted …

Building a team

Launching Talking Wales is a big ask and simply can’t be achieved by one individual. By setting up a Community Benefit Society that governance is built in, that’s why we’re …

Community Newsrooms

Trust in traditional news provision has never been lower, and the growth of misinformation and disinformation directly impacts our communities. People in many parts of Wales feel voiceless and are …

Radio for the digital age

The world of radio has changed. According to the latest listening statistics from RAJAR more and more of us are listening to audio content online, via our smartphones, digital assistants …

What’s on TV in Wales

TV has changed beyond all recognition in the past decade. For a generation raised on 3 or 4 TV channels, the choice available today can be bewildering. So much content …

Our Mission and Values Statement

Talking Wales will be owned and managed, researched, written, designed, developed, promoted and distributed by people who share a common goal to strengthen civil society and help people participate more …

Funding

We have prepared a detailed business plan. This ensures that adequate funding is in place to deliver the required services. As the service develops and grows we will reinvest in …

Who is developing the plan?

FOUNDER

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 five 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.

In January 2024 Huw joined the University of Lancaster’s prestigious Journalism Innovation & Leadership programme, studying for a Post Graduate Certificate, developing new skills and gaining new learnings in the field of public interest news, innovation and community development. In January 2025 he hopes to progress to continue with the programme studying at Masters level.

Huw’s LinkedIn