When The National launched on St David’s Day (March 1st) as a digital news service, a special launch print edition was produced. The print edition was so popular a second election special print edition focusing on the upcoming Senedd contest was published on April 9th. 

As a result of this, publisher Newsquest has decided to launch the print title as a weekly newspaper which has created four new journalism jobs in Wales.

The roles are sports writer, two news reporting roles, and a print content/production editor with the sports writer and one news reporting role already having been filled.

The print title will include features and in-depth coverage to accompany the online news service

Editor, Gavin Thompson says: “From launch day, the response from readers has been overwhelming with so many people saying this is what Wales needs.

“Sales of the launch edition exceeded our expectations, and we have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the second edition too, so have now decided to take the print title weekly.”

Thompson says the long-term goal for The National is to build a “sustainable quality online news title for Wales” which will be based on digital subscriptions. Despite this, Thomson adds: “But we can also see that there is a strong appetite for it in print, so we are creating these new roles to provide the additional content needed for a weekly newspaper.”

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