Welsh press

   A total of eighty-three newspapers are published in Wales. Because of the relatively small size of the population, the readerships of individual titles tend to be smaller than those of English papers. For example, the readership of the Cardiff South Wales Echo, 79,189, is a fraction of that of the Liverpool Echo at 191,000, or even of the Leicester Mercury at 118,594. In addition to the major commercial titles, there are many Welsh community newspapers.

   This large number is partly because they receive an annual grant as a result of the government’s wider financial support for the Welsh language, which has undergone a resurgence in recent years. Most of the newspapers are locally owned and run, and none seems to be ‘a licence to print money’ —quite the reverse—even though they have reasonable circulations. For example the tabloid Swansea South Wales Evening Post has a circulation of 68,935. Smaller papers like the Newport-based evening broadsheet South Wales Argus and the tabloid Wrexham Evening Leader, with circulations of 35,644 and 31,598 respectively, are much less viable. In Welsh newspapers there is a substantial difference in advertising rates per page. The South Wales Evening Post charges £1,763 where the Cardiff morning broadsheet Western Mail charges £7,728. The circulation figures for these two papers, in the mid-60,000s, are more or less the same. This price difference is in line with a British national trend, that broadsheets charge more than tabloids, but nowhere else is the discrepancy so extreme. Against another national trend is the fact that of two Cardiffbased newspapers, the Sunday paper Wales on Sunday charges half as much for advertising as the tabloid evening South Wales Echo. Normally, Sundays are slightly more expensive. The Welsh edition of the Liverpool Daily Post, owned by Trinity Holdings and with a circulation of 73,436, also sells significant numbers of papers in North Wales.

   Under the Broadcasting Act (1990) no proprietor of a national or local newspaper is allowed more than a 20 percent interest in direct broadcasting by satellite channels, independent television Channels 3 and 5 and national and local radio within its circulation area. Partly because of the financial constraints referred to above, this limit does not look like being breached by any of the local owners in Wales.

   See also: literature, Welsh

   MIKE STORRY