Trinity Mirror editor hits back at university study on Welsh newspapers

The study I reported on yesterday about Trinity Mirror's two daily newspapers in Wales, Unholy Trinity: The decline of Welsh news media, has come in for some severe criticism.

I cannot be certain that a commenter to my posting (fedupcyclist) was a Trinity employee at the north Wales title, the Daily Post, though the response had all the hallmarks of coming from an insider.

But there cannot be the least doubt about the provenance of the statement issued last night by Alan Edmunds, editor of the Western Mail in south Wales.
He lambasted the study by Dr Andy Willliams, a research fellow at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Here is Edmunds's complete full-frontal assault:

We will be taking this up in very strong terms with Cardiff University to tell them that, in our view, this is another example from them of one-eyed, inadequately-researched hyperbole full of ill-informed statements, old chestnuts, tired cliches and 1970s rhetoric.

It is almost identical in tone and line to an equally out-of-touch and quaint view published by the same research department a few years ago and shows an astonishing lack of understanding of how we have had to change and modernise to meet the fast-evolving demands of readers and advertisers.

The easily repeated barb about the regurgitation of press releases, for example, is tiresome and insulting to the first class journalists and managers in the regional media.

We are incredibly disappointed that, despite our attempt at trying to drag Cardiff's researchers out of the dark ages and into the real world following their last report, they appear to have reverted to type.

They could have written about the fact that Media Wales was the first regional centre in Britain to introduce an integrated multimedia newsroom for its online, morning, evening, Sunday and weekly titles more than two years ago, which has spawned a constant stream of visits to the centre from others throughout the industry.

This major innovation in tough economic times, and the successful launch and development of WalesOnline, however, appears to have passed them by, despite the fact that a number of their graduates have gained valuable work experience in our newsroom, with a number winning permanent roles.

It is such a shame that our excellent relationship with the teaching staff at the university's journalism staff doesn't seep through to their research colleagues, who appear to live in a vacuum.

Far from being an expert view of how the media in Wales has or should have developed, this report betrays a total lack of understanding of the Welsh media marketplace and how it is developing.

In my view it is not based on new insights into the circulation challenge that has faced the whole industry but on old prejudices.

For the record, Williams is on the teaching staff at Cardiff, as his university CV shows. I fancy we have not heard the latest on this subject.

Indeed, I understand that Trinity Mirror also takes issue with claims in the Williams study about the company's debt level and its pension obligations.

I am hazy on the debt situation, and will doubtless hear more on that today, but I do know that Williams is wrong in claiming that the company failed to attract a buyer for several titles "because of its huge pension deficit."

That deficit played no part in attempted disposals, nor did it prevent TM from selling off the Racing Post in October 2007 and 27 regional titles to Tindle Newspapers a couple of months earlier.

It's true that it did pull out of a mooted Midlands sell-off, but that was due to it not finding a buyer at the right price.

These matters do not, of course, negate Williams's views on the state of the Welsh titles. Doubtless, he did enough research to be able to counter the Edmunds response.