Read on Twitter
The cat is out of the bag, we are launching a new national news service for Wales - https://thenational.wales/ . Since the news broke, I’ve seen a few questions on Twitter so wanted to try to answer them here.
. @marcvjones asked when the title will be launched. Our site will go live on March 1 – St David’s Day and there’ll be a special print edition published the same day.
. @KMRWales asked who owns us. We are part of Newsquest, which in turn is part of @Gannett. Newsquest already publishes lots of local titles across Wales.
Some, inc @joshknapman asked about New Media Wales. Our creation has its roots in the campaign by New Media Wales for a new national service for Wales. Their determination and work got us here and we continue to work in partnership. But The National is a Newsquest title.
. @SadlerRhian asked how many of our new journalists will be from Wales. We’ve recruited 3 new roles. All from Wales. Newsquest already has dozens of reporters across Wales. The title is English language. But we are interested in developing Welsh language services in future.
Our business model is subscriber driven. So once we launch, our success of failure will depend on whether enough people subscribe to the digital service. As we grow subscriptions, we will grow the team.
This model takes inspiration from the success of our sister title @ScotNational. But we differ in other ways. We are politically neutral, while they campaign for independence. Our mission is to help create a vibrant Welsh national media.
We think we’ll offer something different and a Welsh perspective that readers will value. But a strong and financially sustainable Welsh media is good for us all so I hope to see @walesonline, @NationCmyru and others succeed too.
