102-year-old paper to shut
By Andy Pearson
Swansea’s Herald of Wales newspaper is to close.
Established in 1909, the weekly has been a free publication in recent years.
It’s run by South West Wales Media, the publishers of the South Wales Evening Post.
Demise
The end comes less than two years after the demise of near-neighbours the Neath and Port Talbot Guardians.
It reflects challenging times for a local newspaper industry grappling with the online information revolution and economic hardship.
As recently as the early 1990s, the Herald was a thoroughly robust tabloid with its own staff.
News hounds
Then-editor Paul Chambert prided himself on digging out eye catching stories and training young journalists to be thoroughly efficient wordsmiths and news hounds.
Its final decade saw it most famous for carrying weighty parcels of promotional leaflets and fliers.
It will go out with a flurry of advertising offers but, I suspect, little in the way of news.
Executive
An SWWM executive told me: “The Herald’s last publication date will be May 26.
“As a result we’re offering heavily discounted adverts for the next few weeks.”
Full pages will be available at £250, half pages at £136 and quarter pages at £68.
A four-page wraparound is available for that final edition at £1,000 – an opportunity, possibly, to say a fond farewell to a once-important part of Swansea’s social fabric.
Tags: Cardiff, Herald of Wales, PR, PR agency, South Wales Evening Post, Swansea, Wales
