Welsh language paper is unveiled

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The first national daily newspaper in the Welsh language will be launched next year, it has been announced.

Y Byd (The World) will be published on the first Monday of March says the company behind it, Dyddiol Cyf.

Editor Aled Price said initially they wanted to get 5,000 subscribers for the paper, which will cover Welsh, UK and international news.

One expert in Welsh journalism said the launch of the daily paper was both ambitious and historic.

Previous anticipated launch dates have come and gone, but £300,000 worth of subscriptions have now been received, and staff are currently being taken on.

The paper will be given business grant aid by the Welsh Assembly Government and Powys County Council.

Mr Price, a former BBC Wales journalist from Cardiff, was appointed editor in November 2006 and said 12 full-time journalists would be employed in addition to columnists and freelancers.

Llion Iwan says the newspaper industry is in decline

"Y Byd will revolutionise journalism in Welsh. For the first time Wales will have a national daily newspaper in Welsh," he said.

"It will be a complete newspaper - incorporating sport, leisure, business and politics."

Y Byd's headquarters will be in Machynlleth, Powys, where the team will produce the paper and a website.

Llion Iwan, a journalism lecturer at the Creative Industries Department in University Wales, Bangor believed the paper's launch would be a milestone.

"Historically in Wales, we have not had a national paper because there have been practical problems.

Conservative market

"There have been difficulties in the way papers are distributed and also in the way the population is distributed.

"And over the last 10 years, and especially over the last three years, the newspaper market in Britain is declining. Only the Financial Times is holding its ground.

"It's a traditional and conservative market. Initially people might buy both Y Byd and their usual paper, but it will have to compete with them," Mr Iwan said.

Y Byd will sell for 70p on Monday to Thursday and £1.20 on Friday, which will include a weekend supplement.

According to Mr Price, Y Byd's website will also be central to the scheme.

"A lively website will also be central to the enterprise as Y Byd breaks new ground with a live online newspaper," he said.

The chairman of the company, Ned Thomas, said: "The promotion of the Welsh economy is a priority for the newspaper.

"We will also continue talks with political parties in the National Assembly urging them to build on promises made during the recent election campaign to help establish a daily newspaper based on firm foundations in accordance with the expectations of the Council of Europe."

According to its website, the paper will have about 24 pages, almost certainly in two sections.

One section will concentrate on news, and the other will be dedicated to a particular theme each day, such as education, sport, rural life, the economy, culture.

It will be distributed throughout Wales as well as to larger population centres in England.