The National launched in Wales on St David’s Day, March 1, as a digital news service and with a special launch print edition. Following the success of that first edition, says Newsquest, a second edition – an election special focusing on the upcoming Senedd contest – was published on Friday, April 9.
Now publisher Newsquest has decided to take the print title weekly, creating four new journalism jobs in Wales.
Editor Gavin Thompson said the decision followed strong sales from the launch edition and a positive response to the second issue.
“From launch day, the response from readers has been overwhelming with so many people saying this is what Wales needs,” he said.
“Sales of the launch edition exceeded our expectations and we have an overwhelming positive response to the second edition too, so have now decided to take the print title weekly.”
This will lead to the creation of four new journalist roles, including a sport’s writer, two news reporting roles and a print content/production editor.
“Our long-term goal for this title remains to build a sustainable quality online news title for Wales based on digital subscriptions,” said Thompson. “But we can also now see that there is a strong appetite for it in print, so we are creating these new roles to provide the additional content needed for a weekly newspaper.
“We feel sport is an important part of the mix for a print title but we don’t intend to just replicate the coverage of top level men’s rugby and football already done elsewhere. Instead, our sports coverage will consist of features on Welsh sport, including coverage of topics that don’t always get the same exposure.”
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