Here come the Welsh media big-hitters

Alan Edmunds and Clive Jones are Welsh media professionals with much on their plates.

And this week both are due to talk to gatherings of business bosses in South Wales.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, October 6) Edmunds will leave his Media Wales HQ to address the IoD in Cardiff; on Friday Jones will tell Swansea Business Club about his high-profile roles in organisations such as S4C, GMTV and ITV.

Edmunds is expected to have much to say about the evolving roles of newspaper operations.

Flagship

His own flagship title, the Western Mail, has seen circulation decline markedly over the past decade in line with most regional papers. Yet his online user numbers continue to rise healthily.

He and his colleagues must tackle with the great problem of meeting customer demand in news delivery whilst maintaining a commercial powerbase through traditional advertising and new forms of revenue generation.

All you need do to understand his conundrum is observe the opposites of how the Guardian and News International are meeting the challenge.

The Guardian is offering all content as free online whilst building new incomes through channels such as its club-style readership scheme; Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, is charging for much online material from titles such as The Times.

Grassroots

Throw in the recession, the forthcoming austerity measures and the growth in low-cost grassroots media and you begin to see further into reasons for why Edmunds may suffer sleepless nights.

On the other hand, of course, great events such as the Ryder Cup and developments such as devolution and the growth of Cardiff Bay illustrate how exciting it can be to be helming titles such as the South Wales Echo and Wales on Sunday.

Edmunds, publishing director of Media Wales, is due to talk to Wales-based members of the Institute of Directors at the Park House Club, Cardiff, from 5.30-7.15pm tomorrow.

Clive Jones approaches the media world with a different perspective. He's the ex-boss of GMTV, formerly Britain’s most popular breakfast TV station, and is the sole non-executive director of S4C.

Award

A fellow of the Royal Television Society, he holds the society's highest award and holds a CBE for services to broadcasting.

In a time of enormous change for commercial broadcasters, he has been chief executive of ITV News and Regions, managing director of the ITV Network, CEO of Carlton Television, managing director of Central Television, and managing director of the London News Network.

Swansea Business Club members meet him at the city’s Village Hotel on Friday and are likely to learn a lot about modern broadcasting.

To find out how you can attend the events, give me a call on 07890 953 402.