Macroscope submitted brief evidence, drawing on our work with PINF on the Local News Plans project in Bangor, Wales, to the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities‘ call-for-evidence [UPDATE: Summary of evidence submitted, including some mention of local media, was published in May 2023, and an initial Position Paper, in June 2023], as follows:
Question 1: What steps should be taken in order to strengthen Welsh-speaking communities (or the Welsh language in Welsh-speaking communities) as a consequence of any of these developments?
The pandemic has shown us how important it is to have reliable, trustworthy, fact-based information as the bedrock of our communities, shared places, common services, our local economies, and our democracy. This is as true in Wales as it is in other nations of the UK and elsewhere. Local media, and local-language media, are a crucial part of the fabric of communities across the world, and Wales is no different in that regard. The work of the Senedd, political parties, public bodies and industry bodies and initiatives to catalyse a better environment for public interest journalism both in Welsh and in English is commendable, and should serve as a springboard to a much better-funded, multi-level, future-generations approach that strengthens the role that media play in our communities, local economies, and democracy – and helps it develop and transform to meet the challenges of Wales’ future.
While there is a wider and spiralling economic crisis in many sectors across society (climate, health, cost-of-living, energy, Ukraine, extremism, Brexit, and so on), the crisis affecting local media restricts and diminishes the role journalism and media play in our communities, and therefore our ability to understand and respond to the other crises we face. Media – while part of an industry that has significant commercially driven elements – are widely understood by policy makers to be a public good, and one that needs its public interest elements (above and beyond public service media like BBC/S4C) to be safeguarded and underwritten by arm’s-length public support, in order to play a true public interest role. Media Cymru, Clwstr and other initiatives are leading the way, but more is needed, more widely, consistently, and equitably, across the country. In Wales, this has a particularly important interaction with the status and future of the Welsh language in general, and with the wellbeing of majority-Welsh communities and of Welsh-first families in particular.
The long-term decline of the advertising-supported newspaper/press industry is well-documented elsewhere, e.g. in the global report calling for a New Deal for Journalism for I was the Lead Rapporteur. The pandemic has exacerbated these trends, followed by further pressure on online and print advertising, subscription fatigue and affordability, donations, hard costs, data poverty, and other factors that affect media’s ability to generate income, and therefore continue to report on communities across Wales. These are even more acute in the Welsh-language local and regional print and online media.
During the pandemic, the government in Westminster classified media as an ‘essential service’ and journalists as ‘key workers’, and there was a huge spike across the country in readership of local media, particularly during periods of lockdown. Despite this huge spike in demand – from people needing to know critical health information, from people suddenly needing to know and understand what shops, services, facilities were available in the place where they live – local media were very hard-hit by the collapse in local business advertising, and the UK government was both slow and skewed in its financial support package to local media. Specific support and thought should be given to how government advertising, and advertising from other public bodies like the NHS, can be more transparently, fairly, and equitably distributed to a variety of local media, including those that serve Welsh-speaking (and Welsh-learning) communities.
In short, well-resourced, well-produced, strongly-rooted media (with a strong support ecosystem – funding, business development support, R&D, tech development) that are responsive to Welsh-speaking communities, will help to strengthen Welsh-speaking communities.
Question 2: How can we provide support effectively for Welsh-speaking communities?
Welsh-speaking communities want and need a diversity of media sources, reflecting the pluralism and diversity of Welsh society. This means both a diversity of sources in the Welsh language, and that the needs of Welsh-speaking communities are reflected and represented in English-language media too.
Local media – from papurau bro and hyperlocal digital publications to local newspapers and digital media – operate on a variety of models, from non-profit to commercial, from voluntary to professional, but all are under severe pressure, whether commercially, demographically, or technologically.
Providing a stimulus to a variety of local media organisations, including a recognition that public interest media are a public good, and therefore merit some form of public subsidy in recognition of the public benefit they bring. This could equally come by including local media as stakeholders and beneficiaries of organisations, networks and funds focused on the promotion and protection of Welsh language and culture.
Encouraging national (UK) journalism prizes to admit and recognise more Welsh-language journalism could also have an impact.
Question 3: How can we use regional or local policies in order to strengthen Welsh-speaking communities?
Encouraging the development of new media businesses and non-profits through the provision of place-based stimuli in recognition of the public good – and the community benefit to Welsh-speaking communities in particular – that local media can bring. These might take the form of a grant, rebate, tax relief, payroll credit (e.g. for editorial roles), or even a form of Universal Basic Organisational Income for organisations dedicated to serving local Welsh-speaking (and non-Welsh-speaking) communities with quality information.
Investment networks and agencies, the Development Bank, and other bodies focused on the development of businesses and local economies across Wales ought to engage with UK-wide organisations like the Independent Community News Network (headquartered in Cardiff) and the Public Interest News Foundation (London) to understand the specific needs and contours of the independent news sector. One of the most critical barriers to the development of new journalism businesses is access to capital – credit unions, the new Welsh community bank, and more traditional high st financial institutions could all be incentivised to provide financing on favourable, realistic and patient terms to media businesses serving communities across Wales.
Another route could be to establish incentives for locally-owned, locally-rooted, locally-focused media to own or share ownership of a building in the heart of the communities they serve. Holding such an asset – perhaps co-owned through community shares with the local community, or with other public interest organisations like Citizens Advice Bureaux or Law Centres – could also develop into a revenue stream. It would also address the lack of the on-the-ground presence of journalists within communities – one of the most common complaints I have heard from stakeholders in the Local News Plans project, including in Bangor and the shores of the Menai.
Wales has pioneered many collective approaches to funding and ownership – from chapels to universities, from co-operatives to community shares and assets – and I believe that similarly pioneering initiatives could be piloted and scaled in the field of local media. Expertise in co-operative media exists in nearby Manchester and Bristol, as well as further afield, and could no doubt also learn from techniques pioneered in Wales.
My focus is on how public interest media are resourced, and for this reason, I am relatively agnostic as to the organisational model that a media organisation takes. Diverse models – limited company, CIC, co-operative, non-profit newsroom, or registered charity – can be used, and all can deliver a range of public interest media and journalism within the work they do.
Question 4: What role should local government have in strengthening Welsh-speaking communities?
The IWA has a strong Media and Democracy Programme that has taken wide soundings on this, and has a range of recommendations outlined in a recent report, which I would commend to all levels of government in Wales.
Macroscope 