Thud, thud, thud

Sue Davies wrote...

I would like to thank you for your reply. I will respond to its inadequacies. By the way, I felt insulted by being reduced to just "xxxx". Do you normally insult readers in this kind of way? Was this some sort of "expletive deleted"?

Sue "xxxx" Davies

Posted by: Sue Davies  | August 8, 2006 2:35 PM

Sue Davies wrote...

Dear Mr Irvine,

Re your reply.
Sorry about the delay, I've been away. A bit about myself: My family have lived in North Wales for generations, concentrated mostly in Llyn and the Rhyl/Rhuddlan area. There's are branches in Cardiff and Liverpool (I know both cities well).

I have a passion for current affairs and history and I read voraciously. I once taught history, but now I have a job which takes me around Wales and sometimes abroad, mostly to Ireland and Spain.

My study of Welsh history changed me from a royalist to a republican. I am also a Welsh nationalist, partly because I fear for our culture and language but mainly because after studying the economic arguments I firmly believe Wales would be far better off with full independence (if Ireland and many other small nations can do it, then so can we). I´ve been writing to Welsh newspapers for years on such subjects, but my letters are mostly surpressed. I do not support any particular politoical party

Because of my deep interest in current affairs, I deplore the relentless dumbing down of newspapers covering Wales, such as your own and your stablemate, the Western Mail. It's been going on for years but has been stepped up since Trinity became so dominant here.

Everywhere I go people tell me how fed up they are with their weekly and daily newspapers - prefunctory coverage that often misses what´s really going on, the disappearance of political reporting, except for the drumming up of controversy and pages upon pages devoted to "lifestyle" rubbish and/or the endless doings (often concocted) of useless celebs (oh, such easy ways to fill pages) and, somewhat incestously, columnists mostly there to slag off said useess celebs.

Editorial staff levels have been savaged, with in the main experienced journalists getting the heave-ho, leaving too much in the hands of poorly-paid trainees, who - if the ones I keep coming across in my work are typical, bless 'em! - don't have much of a clue.

It's no wonder local authorties and big business get away with so much gross incompetence and even graft - they know they're not being expertly scrutinised as they used to be. It´s no wonder an Assembly minister rightly called the WM's serious coverage "a joke".

It's no suprise that fewer and fewer people buy newspapers regularly (among people I know a principal reason for sticking to your paper are your hatch, match and dispatch columns). Circulations are well down with papers disguising the fact by sly references to "readership" instead.

Answer me these questions:

What is the DP's circulation compared with, say, 10 years ago?

If the DP is not a glorified edition of the LDP, are you equal in status with the editor of the LDP and would therefore have a substantial say in the non-Wales articles prepared in Liverpool to be wrapped around your few pages.

How many of your North Wales staff are Welsh, Herald Gymraeg staff excepted? I ask because I was once told by a journalist who worked for many years in the Welsh media that he reckoned that at any given time at least 80% of senior newspaper staff on any English-language newspaper were from outside Wales. He even thought it was deliberate.

Does the DP have its own staff in Cardiff to cover the Welsh Assembly?

I look forward to more "thuds", though I won't hold my breath.

Yours truly,

Sue "xxxx" Davies

PS: Contrary to what you appear to think, I do not want a newspaper with anti-English elements. What I want are newspapers that are genuinely independent and therefore unfraid to take a constructive and open-minded approach to such currently taboo issues as independence and republicanism.

Rob's reply

Hello Sue

You refer to the disappearance of political reporting – we have a reporter covering the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff and a reporter covering Welsh affairs from Westminster. They work hard and produce many excellent political stories which appear in the Daily Post Wales.

You refer to a reliance on celebrities to fill pages. We carry a film actor interview on two thirds of a page on a Saturday. Otherwise there are no regular slots in the paper to feature celebrities. There are some articles about famous people with a North Wales connection but these are certainly not a priority on our newslist compared to other titles. None of the columnists we use focuses their attention on celebrities. The ones that did are no longer working for us.

The Daily Post today employs more journalists in North Wales than at any time in its 151-year history. There are currently no trainees on my staff (we never have more than one trainee reporter at a time and they are given rigorous training in all aspects of news journalism). The average age of my editorial team is in the early 40s with the reporters varying in age from about 26 to 60.

The Assembly minister who referred to aspects of the Western Mail’s coverage as "a joke” was culture minister Alun Pugh. In the very same speech he praised the Daily Post Wales for the high standard of its political coverage

In terms of circulation, the ABC-audited figures I have to hand go back seven years when our average sale was 46,000. The most recent audited figures I have for the second half of last year placed our circulation at just under 40,000. In this time our internet audience has grown from zero to about a 20,000-plus. In my 20 years as a journalist newspapers have always referred to readership and there is indisputable evidence from dozens of research reports that points to a higher level of paper-sharing, so there are more readers per copy sold than there were five years ago, as I referred to in my last note to you. Most newspapers – local, regional and national, have seen a decline in sales in the past few years. Changing lifestyles, the growth of multi-media and a growing public demand for glossy lifestyle and celebrity magazines as a preference accounts for much of this. But we remain the best selling newspaper in North Wales, accounting for more than a quarter of sales of daily newspapers

My status as editor is the same as that of the editor of the Liverpool Daily Post and the editors of Trinity Mirror in Cardiff, Birmingham or Paisley. I have to assume that you do not read the Liverpool Daily Post or the Daily Post Wales. If you did you would see, as I said in my last reply, that we do not carry articles prepared in Liverpool, We only share coverage of Liverpool FC and Everton. With respect to our other content, we have no more connection with the Liverpool Daily Post than any other of the 250 titles in our company.

In terms of where our staff come from there is no policy to recruit or avoid recruiting people from Wales. We choose on merit. It just so happens that at this moment around half of our journalists are from Wales. It also is the case that, at present, most of the reporters come from Wales.

For the record, I was born in Coventry. My home is now in Wales which is a place I love to be in. I am learning to speak Welsh and it is my policy, when asked to speak in public, to deliver a section of that speech in Welsh.

You ask whether the Daily Post has its own staff in Cardiff to cover the Welsh Assembly. Yes we do. We have a full-time reporter who lives in South Wales and is based at the Assembly. We are the only newspaper who has a full-time reporter based there.

Regards,

Rob Irvine
Editor
Daily Post Wales

Posted by: Sue Davies  | August 17, 2006 3:54 PM

Sue Davies wrote...

Dear Mr Irvine,

Again, thank you for such a full and frank reply. Can a leopard change its spots? You seem to think so. I am not a regular reader of the DP, but I do see it (the changes you mention don't seem to have sunk in yet, but I´m glad to hear you no longer employ the kind of columnist I detest) and the LDP on occasions but, of course, never on the same day, so a comparison is not easy. The two papers appear to be similar in design. Are your pages designed, edited and put together in Llandudno or in Liverpool?

I´m not a regular reader because my view of the DP is much coloured by the shameful role it played for many decades in undermining the Welsh at every turn. It seemed to be there solely to defend the interests of the English settlers who, as you admit, are in North Wales in astonishingly large numbers.

I come across these settlers a lot. There are those who take Wales to their hearts, try their best to learn the language or send their children to Welsh-medium schools, delve into our history and understand, perhaps more clearly than some of us in Wales, how distinctly differen this nation is and how its culture needs strong support. I have always welcomed such people with open arms.

But there are others, sadly the majority it seems to me, who either couldn´t care tuppence about Wales and just ignore it (except at election-time) or work hard to tear down our culture and language and put an end to all that silly nonsense about the Welsh wanting more say in their own affairs. They often run touristy businesses in Welsh-speaking areas and refuse to employ anyone Welsh. The LDP, backing them to the hilt, was always their mouthpiece.

My father loved Wales. He was also a trusting man and was always giving the Liverpool Daily Post, as it was always known, another chance. Within days he was angrily throwing it aside with the words, "It hasn´t changed a bit". After your fulsome defence, I´ll willingingly give the DP another chance. I´ll let you know whether I´ve thrown it aside.

Yours truly,

Sue "xxxx" Davies

PS: Apologies about the non-Liverpool content. I didn't have your comment in front of me and mis-remembered your words.

As to "senior staff", I should have made it clear - as the journalist I mentioned did to me - that the percentage did not refer to reporters, article writers or columnists, who often were Welsh, but to the decision-makers above them; i.e those who decide policy, decide what should or shouldn´t be written about and in what way, what weight to give items and where things should go. They mainly write the editorial comments and decide what letters will be published and which will be binned.

If what I´ve been told is true, then on almost all newspapers in Wales these influential positions are nearly always filled from outside Wales. Is merit always the criterior? I was told about the daily newspaper which appointed an editor from England, who brought with him a whole platoon of "trusted" colleagues to take over almost every such position. You had to go way down the ladder, I as told, before you found anyone Welsh.

Posted by: Sue Davies  | August 18, 2006 12:57 PM