Weak but not weekly - for now

Alan Edmunds, managing director of Media Wales did not mince his words when telling a cross-party group of AMs that there is no intention of selling off the Western Mail or turning it into a weekly newspaper.

There were "absolutely no plans" for a slim-down despite the company conceding that it was facing the same dwindling circulation problems as other newspaper publishers.

He told the committee of inquiry, "I can't envisage a scenario, I can't see a scenario where it would make business sense for us to turn it weekly”. It was noticeable however that he did not rule out the possibility should someone else’s imagination within the organisation become a factor.

Edmunds was equally forthright is dismissing the suggestion of a government bail-out (temprorary public ownership) as mooted by Plaid Cymru AM Bethan Jenkins. He claimed that the idea of public ownership was based on “very little substance”.

"Wales needs an independent, private, commercial news service and I think it would be all the poorer if it didn't have one”, he added.

No argument there, but the question persists as to whether the Western Mail has actually been fulfilling this particular role in recent times.