Swansea Bay success means opportunities

Well, some of the dust has settled on a fabulous ITV news victory for Swansea Sound, The Wave and their associates.
The big question for everyone in the Swansea Bay media now is: "How will our successful local bidders in the Wales Live alliance embrace this glorious chance?"
Will jobs be created for journalists?
Will strategic new business alliances be created with complementary professional information providers?
Can Swansea Bay really look forward to a genuinely credible alternative to BBC Wales news and sport?
I hope the answers are positive.
Job creation will be studied with a keen eye.
The winning UTV/NWN Media IFNC proposal is strong on its citizen journalism element. That's good because technology rightly makes everyone an information provider these days.
But any such contributed material must be subject to UTV moderation at the very least and, most preferably, to professional editing and packaging.
That should mean more job security and career prospects for those at our local radio stations ... and, hopefully, more opportunities for recruitment.
Strategic new professional hook-ups across Swansea Bay will be equally interesting.
Imagine what a force the South Wales Evening Post and Swansea Sound could be together.
But are the Post's Northcliffe Media bosses liberal enough - and sufficiently forward thinking - to consider such an arrangement?
The Post's low-key announcement of the Swansea Sound success yesterday suggests not. Indeed the two local radio stations weren't even name-checked in their hour of glory.
I understand why but it came across as needlessly petty ... it's a big, evolving world out there now and there's more to the local media than the local paper.
Everyone knows that and it's a fact that should be acknowledged a little more readily by Northcliffe's big guns.
Perhaps the Wales Live editorial chiefs will look to grassroots news and information professionals. They are, after all, a growing force.
BBC Wales has, of course, had the Wales-wide TV and radio field to itself for too long. ITV resources have been stretched too thinly and local radio has been increasingly careful with its journalistic spend.
So it'll be good to see an extended local and community reach of the new all-Wales media service. Inevitably, this will mean multi-skilling for journalists. That brings excitement for all - training opportunities and new ways of seeing work published.
Plenty more on this subject to come ...

Quiz kings see Swansea media celebrated in Cardiff

The Swansea media community was at the intellectual vanguard of a big night in Cardiff, I hear.
Former South Wales Evening Post reporter Roger Butler and ex-Post sub-editor Ken Smith played key parts in a quiz night attended by dozens of personnel from the South Wales print and broadcast media.

Indeed, Ken - secretary of the National Union of Journalists' Swansea and District branch - was quizmaster.
His proudest moment came when no team was able to answer correctly his stunning: "Who won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature?"
"OMG!" I hear you cry "It was German author Herta Müller who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
Well, on the night, not ever North Walian Roger - now a press officer with Carmarthenshire Council, could match your brightness.
Quiz kings were the fine trio pictured here - a team from ITV Wales.
The NUJ event attracted teams of journalists from the freelance sector, PR, students, Media Wales, ITV Wales and BBC Wales.
It was a fine way to draw the attention of journalists from Swansea and further afield to the excellent programme of training now being delivered by the union.
The NUJ runs a wide range of skills development courses from feature writing to web design.
By working closely with members, prominent industry bodies, universities and colleges, the union is are able to provide a wide array of courses that are topical and tailored to the needs of journalists today.
The NUJ is also committed to providing high quality training for its reps, a crucial factor in building effective union representation on behalf of members.
The NUJ offers a range of practical trade union training courses – all free to members.

Haiti quake eye-opener for Swansea media old boy

ITV News reporter Geraint Vincent, who operated a local BBC TV patch encompassing Swansea Bay a few years ago, is at the frontline in Haiti.
Check him out at http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/2010/01/16/T16011001/
The Media Master's best wishes go to all those caught up in the earthquake aftermath. They can be assured that Geraint, whose little brother Gareth is the Swansea City reporter for the South Wales Evening Post, will view them through sympathetic eyes.