Welsh news website The National is to close 18 months after launching, blaming competition from other outlets. Its two dedicated members of staff have been warned that as they haven’t been employed for at least two years they are not legally entitled to redundancy payments.
The website is owned by Newsquest, one of the largest news groups in Britain, which in turn is a subsidiary of the United States media giant Gannett. Gavin Thompson, the managing editor of The National and who also edits the Newport-based South Wales Argus, issued a statement which said: “Newsquest is consulting on the proposed closure of The National Wales.
“Despite the best efforts and dedication of the team competition from free news outlets including BBC Wales online means The National Wales has not been able to grow its paying subscriber base to a sustainable level. A small number of roles are at risk as a result of this proposal and we are consulting with staff affected in an effort to minimise potential redundancies.” It is understood that the website may close as early as next week.
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In addition to the dedicated staff members the paper’s articles were provided by reporters working on other Newsquest titles in Wales and by those working for the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The National’s website was launched on St David’s Day 2021. To coincide with the launch it published what was described as a “souvenir” print edition followed by a special edition to preview the Welsh Senedd election.
A weekly newspaper edition was published weekly on a Saturday until November 2021 when the last printed edition went on sale. At the time Mr Thompson said: “The main objective for the newspaper was to raise awareness of the new digital news service for Wales as an alternative to the UK national news brands published out of England.”
It was claimed that the print edition had “achieved its objective” and that it would return to its “pop-up format”, with details of future pop-ups released in 2021. But no further newspapers were produced.
Mr Thompson added at the time: “Since launching in March we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response The National has received and we’re delighted to have proved that there is a huge appetite for a new national news service for all of Wales. Our original intention was to be digital-only but we had such a strong response from our early pop-up print edition that we built out a weekly print newspaper as well.
“With the digital audience going from strength to strength we feel now is the time to focus only on the digital opportunity for The National and are launching a host of new digital features and content, with more to come. Watch this space!”
The National’s publisher was Huw Marshall, a former head of digital at S4C who originally launched a project called New Media Wales. He set up a Patreon page to which subscribers could send money to back the project. Later it was revealed that Newsquest was behind the launch of the news outlet.
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