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    02 August, 2006

    Assembly Advertising

    The BBC is reporting today that our Culture Minister Alun Pugh has suggested that the Assembly Government might in future advertise jobs on websites, leading to a loss of revenue by the Trinity Mirror Group.

    There are two issues here, really: the first is the sensible, efficient and effective use of the Assembly's limited recruitment budget. The second is the issue of Trinity Mirror's role in Wales. Both of these have been interests of mine for some time.

    The Assembly spends a fair amount of money on advertising. In 2002-3, for example, it spent over half a million pounds with the Western Mail alone:

    Download quango_ad_seonding.doc

    On top of this, but no figures were collected centrally, were the sums spent by the quangos, the Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies (ASPBs). I was specifically interested in these figures at the time because I was looking at the recruitment base for key quango appointments. High-profile quango appointments were only advertised in the Western Mail, the Daily Post, Golwg and Y Cymro. (the latter two are not Trinity Mirror, of course).

    Download quango_ads.doc

    Not many of my constituents read those. In fact, not many of anybody's constituents read those. See here:

    Leighton Andrews: Further to WAQ32563, what assessment has the Minister made of the circulation levels of the four publications selected, and will she make a statement? (WAQ33264)

    The Finance Minister (Sue Essex):

    I am advised that the circulation levels of the publications are:

    The Western Mail

    (average daily circulation)

    53,315

    Daily Post

    – Wales edition (average circulation for Monday and Thursday)

    40,835

    Y Cymro

    (weekly)

    4,802

    Golwg

    (weekly)

    4,500

    To be fair to Trinity Mirror, it has other publications, like the Rhondda Leader and other newspapers in that group, and the South Wales Echo, which are much more widely read. I have always believed that there would be a wider mix of people selected for quango boards if advertising was conducted more widely.

    Clearly, we need to advertise sensibly where we can have most effect. If we were to focus ads on a website, which I favour, we would still need to sign-post those ads, probably through local radio advertising and some print advertising, some of which would still be in Trinity Mirror's titles.

    Rhondda TV
    The Labour Party

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    Promoted by Leighton Andrews AM, National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff CF99 1NA.

    Author's editorial policy: This blog does not publish anonymous comments, unless they are really witty and I like them. If you have something to say, then have the courage of your convictions and use your name or an identifiable alias. Even then I reserve the right not to publish comments that are malicious, defamatory, stupid, pointlessly cynical or boring. Any of the statements or comments made above should be regarded as personal and not necessarily those of the National Assembly for Wales, any constituent part or connected body.