SLOW OFF THE PRESS.

It was a bad day yesterday for Welsh News coverage

Firstly came the result pf analysis by Cardiff University for the BBC Trust found the BBC had generally increased its coverage of the nations but Welsh stories lagged behind.

The BBC said editors from the nations regularly discussed stories together.

Elan Closs Stephens said the report was generally encouraging.

I'm not sure in what way she found it encouraging 

But she added: 

"There has been improvement but I'm not fully satisfied. It's a long journey and we're going in the right direction."

Cardiff University monitored output by the BBC over a four-week period in October and November 2015 and followed it up with a snapshot review over two weeks in early 2016.

The 2015 research found that coverage of Welsh stories on the BBC's UK-wide programmes had fallen compared to a similar study completed in 2009.

Only 1.4% of stories on network TV news bulletins were specifically about Wales, compared to 3.8% in 2009.

By contrast, Scotland accounted for 10.2% of stories in 2015 compared to 6.7% in 2009 while Northern Ireland stories were 5% of the TV output, compared to 3.7% in 2009.

Of course the "Independence" question is still a talking point in Scotland  but that does not explain the low figures 

For some reason  a two week 2016 snapshot found 3.6% of TV news stories were about Wales, while 5.9% were about Scotland. Northern Ireland stories were 0.7% of the network TV news was included.

Any story which a BBC Editor found interesting would clearly make an impact on a Two Week snapshot and we can learn nothing from this. 

When comparing all of the BBC's TV and radio output, as well as some commercial TV news, Cardiff University found that stories with specific relevance to Wales accounted for 1.9% of those covered.

The BBC said it had improved its labelling of stories that only applied to specific parts of the UK and pointed to improvements it had made to increase coverage of the devolved governments, including the introduction of a "nations news belt" on its TV news.

I suspect the only coverage of devolved government  will be when then a major controversy and the  Assembly  government looking ridiculous (mind you some think this happens more often than not.

The other bad news  is that  the newspaper group Trinity Mirror is consulting with staff over closing its printing site in Cardiff.

The group prints most of south Wales' newspapers, including the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, South Wales Evening Post and the Llanelli Star.

A spokesman blamed declining print volumes and the relocation of a number of titles within its network.

It said it had entered into consultation with the 33 staff affected.

Alistair Milburn was editor of the South Wales Echo when the printing press facility was launched 13 years ago by Prince Charles.

He told BBC Radio Wales' Good Evening Wales programme.

"You'll come to a day sooner rather than later where the likes of the Western Mail won't exist as a print product,"
"The nationals will get slightly slower, the weeklies are still quite strong and you've got these regional papers that are really caught between the two, so it won't exist before long.
"I think it's a sign of the times. It's a sign of very low print runs. The Western Mail can be printed in less than an hour these days.
"Things have changed now, the news is more instant and it's going online

I suspect that this will start with the closure of the South Wales Echo which editions are publishes two editions : News Extra for morning sales and City Final for evening sales. There is also a Weekend edition published every Saturday

Clearly these will mot be appearing in South Wales as quickly off the presses  as  we are used to.

I suspect that Trinity Mirror will try and close the Echo in the hope that readers will switch to the Wasting Mule.

With hardly any indigenous Welsh Media it is hardly surprising that people who get their information from the main UK News outlets , are unaware of what is happening in Wales .

Small number the Welsh Electorate are confused about were powers lie and who represents them.

It is Ironic that the 2016 Welsh Election Study (WES) about voter recognition of their elected representatives. managed to hit the UK Media with the news that hardly anyone recognised their MEP

Name Recognition for Individual MEPs/False Names

Name % Selected
Derek Vaughan  Labour   9%
Nathan Gill Ukip 16%
Kay Swinburne Conservative  6%
Jill Evans Plaid Cymru  11%
David Sherwood  Fictional 5%
Elwyn Davies Fictional  12%
Lynn Goodwin Fictional  5%
Jenny Green  Fictional 5%

As Professor Scully pointed out  at the time

It’s difficult to know what to say about some of these results. It is, I think, probably unsurprising that Nathan Gill came top, given the higher profile that his role in the Assembly election was giving him. But none of the other Welsh MEPs were selected by a greater proportion of the WES respondents that that legendary figure in Welsh politics ‘Elwyn Davies’ – whose contributions to our national political life I feel I need not elaborate upon. Even Jill Evans, who had been an MEP for Wales for almost 17 years at the time this survey was implemented, had her name selected by fewer people than chose the mysteriously popular Mr Davies. For Kay Swinburne, Conservative MEP for Wales since 2009, the picture is even worse: her name was picked out barely more than any of the false names 

When the Welsh electorate are reading the SUN or even the Daily Mirror and only watching the main BBC news then this will continue.

Of course some will remember the Welsh Mirror which was supposed to see coverage of Welsh News  after the first Assembly elections  but which some would argue was intended to reverse the growth of Plaid Cymru and which having succeeded, was quietly dropped.


But the SNP face a Scottish media which is almost totally hostile, to the extent they are Unionist propaganda machine , But the daily onslaught of SNP Bad does not sem to be working.

So maybe in Wales we would be better of with an Unionist media that at least covered Welsh News.