The ultimate guide to news media in Wales in 2026

Last year I put together my first guide of Wales’ news media for communicators, and it’s proved popular – thanks for reading. But Cymru’s media doesn’t stand still. So what’s new in 2026?

The Welsh media – and audiences – are changing. Technology is playing its part, but so is the emergence of new forms of journalism.

As I write this, the Senedd election is just a few months away. A new parliament and government for Cymru will be setting the country’s direction.

For communicators in charities, the public sector and other non-profit organisations, this will mean opportunities to use the media to influence, as well as the challenge of getting heard.

So my aim is to help you understand and navigate the media in Cymru. I’ll set out the main players and offer my thoughts on how best to get your message across.

Note: In this guide, I’ve used the latest data I could find. It’s sometimes difficult to make direct comparisons across different media. I’ve used my experience and judgement to try and help you make sense of the figures. The main sources are Ofcom’s Media Nations report and its Online Nation report. I’ve tried to link to other sources below.

How Welsh media are changing

The vast majority of us in Cymru – 79% – are ‘very’ or ‘quite’ interested in Welsh news.

Cymru, like other countries, is seeing a fracturing of news media, with technology allowing new forms of journalism to enter the market.

TV is still our main source, but people are increasingly looking to a variety of online platforms, from Facebook to Substack and from Youtube to Spotify.

BBC Wales is still the main game in town for big audiences and political influence.

That said, the Beeb is losing its lead over ITV Cymru Wales on TV, its Welsh radio ratings are fairly static, and on the web it’s facing stiff competition from Wales Online and increasingly Nation.Cymru. In podcasting, the BBC has upped its game as independent competitors emerge.

And of course, in terms of media relations, success is more than raw audience figures. It’s as much about who is paying attention as how many.

So it’s fascinating to see the rise of Will Hayward’s Newsletter and podcast as major influences in politics, with plenty of people forking out to support him. Meanwhile. Wales Online’s new ‘premium’ offering raises interesting questions about how the site will develop.

Welsh TV news: BBC and ITV fight it out for top spot

Despite the growth of online media, 60% of us in Wales watch traditional TV news.

The main broadcasters are BBC 1 and ITV Cymru Wales / ITV 1. Both provide separate programmes for the whole UK and for Wales specifically.

BBC Wales Today has a main weekday programme at 6:30PM, and ITV Wales News is at 6PM. These are supplemented by daytime/late/weekend bulletins. ITV Wales has a more ‘human interest’ focus than the BBC, which leans more towards politics stories.

BBC Wales is still ahead of ITV Wales – but only just. The gap between those saying they turn to the BBC for Welsh TV news, and their ITV rivals, is just 2% (27% vs 25%).

S4C’s Newyddion provides a similar service in Welsh but has a mix of Welsh and international news in its programmes. Newyddion is produced by the BBC.

Outside the news programmes and bulletins, politics and current affairs strands include BBC Politics Wales on Sunday mornings, the late-night ITV Wales Sharp End (fortunately now available on Youtube) and S4C’s Y Byd Ar Bedwar.

Sky News and Channel 4 News also have decent audiences in Wales (13% and 9% respectively).

All non-profits in Cymru need to at least consider how they can secure positive coverage, and respond to interview requests.

News websites: Wales Online launches subscriptions, Nation.Cymru growing fast

52% of us in Wales get news from social media and 38% from other websites/apps. And there are changes afoot.

In terms of news websites, here are some of the key trends and headlines. Note that its tricky to directly compare these figures due to different measurements of success:

• The BBC’s online service (Welsh and international news) is top, with a reach of 1.8 million adults, according to Ofcom
• Wales Online (1.1 million – mainly Welsh news) is developing a subscription model. The Ipsos Iris figures for Wales Online show a big drop in traffic in 2024-25. So it’s interesting to see it’s launching a new paid ‘premium service’, with ‘unlimited access to all our content as well as giving them a better experience with fewer ads on our website and app.’ It also points out ‘There will be a limit to the number of stories non-subscribers can read.’
• Nation.Cymru – a Wales-based news site – is growing – in February 2026, the CEO Mark Mansfield told me “We are averaging over 2 million [page views] a month for the past year…overall, our audience grew 28% last year compared to 2024.”
• Golwg 360 (Welsh language news and features) claims over 7000 daily readers, reading over 1 million pages per month.
• Some other quality news sites are Newyddion S4C (which also offers an app) and ITV Wales News.
• As well as national services, regional news websites have big audiences. North Wales Live had a monthly audience of 1.4 million in January 2025, and the South Wales Argus had 695,000. (The equivalent Wales Online figure, for comparison, is 7 million – note these are UK audience figures, not Wales specifically).
• The top UK news sites in Wales are now The Sun, The Guardian, The Independent, The Mail and The Mirror, all on around 1 million users.

For communicators, we need to look at not just reach but also audience and other factors. I also looked at the Facebook following of some of these sites, as a proxy measurement of audience.

In my view, you can’t beat coverage on BBC Wales online in terms of overall reach and influence. Wales Online is also a big presence, but has a more populist/human interest focus.

For more local issues, the regional sites are still important. And Nation.Cymru and Golwg 360 attract influential audiences, interested in Welsh affairs. Nation.Cymru’s growth suggests it will be competing for a bigger slice of that general audience in the year ahead.

And don’t discount seeking UK-wide coverage if your story has an angle that will also appeal to people outside Cymru.

Newsletters: Will others follow Will?

Email newsletters have been a growing source of Welsh news over the last year.

As with podcasting, Will Hayward has led the charge with his politics-focused updates, with over 9000 subscribers on Substack. It’s been a success, with Will adding more regular posts, taking on staff and growing income from paying subscribers (of which I am one).

So will 2026 be the year when others start to catch up?

So far, the ITV Wales News briefing has now reached 1500+ subscribers on Substack since it launched in July 2025. Golwg 360 and Cylchgrawn Golwg (the magazine) offer weekly newsletters.

Wales Online also has its own Substack, The Journal, with over 2400 subscribers. However, until recently (Jan 2026) it hadn’t posted for over a year. Perhaps this will change with its new ‘premium’ subscription service?

Audio: Welsh podcasts boom, home-grown radio is…static

We love radio in Wales. Almost 90% of adults tune in each week, listening for an average of 21.9 hours.

Most of our listening is to UK-wide stations. Local commercial makes up 22.3% and BBC nations/local (including Radio Wales and Radio Cymru) are on just 7.3% of listening.

With very little local news and content now left on commercial radio in Wales, communicators should look mainly to the BBC for places to secure coverage.

In the case of Radio Wales, its audience is old and getting older. Radio Cymru, with the launch of its second channel Radio Cymru 2, has managed to attract a younger audience. It’s almost quadrupled the share of listeners aged 15-24, to 11%. The average listener has now dropped to 52, compared to Radio Wales’ 61.

So it’s a fairly small audience, but an influential one.

Both BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru offer news and current affairs slots as well as hourly bulletins. Key programmes include Radio Wales Breakfast and Dros Frecwast on Radio Cymru. On Sunday mornings, Radio Wales broadcasts the Sunday Supplement political programme.

The real area of growth in audio is podcasts. 19.4% of adults in Wales listen to a podcast each week, up from just 11% back in 2019.

Since I wrote this guide last year, there’s been an explosion in Welsh political/current affairs podcasts. These include:

• For Wales, See Wales – Guardian columnist Will Hayward and comedians Mel Owen and Robin Morgan combine professional insight with accessible explainers and lots of humour.
• In The Welsh Politics Pod, Lee Waters MS, Prof. Laura McAllister of the Wales Governance Centre, and former Conservative Special Advisor Lauren McEvatt investigate and debate Senedd and UK issues. Gets into the nitty gritty of politics and government.
• Senedd Sources – very polished-sounding pod, featuring journalist Ollie Cole, as well as my former ITV colleague and former Welsh Labour advisor Jo Kiernan, and former Welsh Conservative candidate and adviser Craig Lawton.
• The BBC has upped its game. There are more regular episodes of Gwleidydda with Vaughan Roderick and Richard Wyn Jones – who provide fantastic analysis. That’s in addition to the English-language Walescast and Sunday Supplement podcasts.
• Talking Wales – weekly pod that looks in detail at important issues affecting Cymru, such as health, benefits and Senedd reform. Speaks to the people at the sharp end, as well as policy experts.
• Golwg also has its political podcast, Craffu360. This features detailed interviews with big hitters in Welsh politics but is less regular, with episodes every month or two.

With no official figures readily available, I can only go on stats like Youtube subscribers and Spotify ratings to compare audiences.

Based on these, For Wales See Wales seems to be a key – and possibly the biggest – player. I would expect the BBC podcasts, in particular Walescast, to also be getting good numbers.

Wales Politics Pod and Senedd Sources have decent audiences, with the others probably a little behind.

The one thing you can be pretty sure of is that these podcasts attract influential audiences of politicians, journalists, lobbyists and campaigners.

Newspapers and news magazines

Printed newspapers are now a minor player in Wales – just 19% say it’s one of our news sources.

Beyond the big UK titles, Welsh papers and magazines have small readerships. The Western Mail – the ‘national newspaper of Wales’ had a circulation (average per issue) of just 3720 in 2025, with regional title The North Wales Daily Post on 5599.

Golwg – a weekly Welsh-language news magazine – had claimed around 7500 magazine readers a week in recent years (the source I linked to last year appears to have been taken offline).

Tips on how to get media coverage in Wales

As before, I won’t use this post to give general media relations advice.

Instead, here are some things to consider in terms of Wales’ media in particular…

• The dominance of TV news means it’s especially important to be able to sell in picture-led stories with strong case studies. Take the time to work with TV reporters and provide the assets they need.
• Likewise, having good media spokespeople for broadcast is very useful. Have yours had media training lately?
• Provide spokespeople and case study subjects who can speak Welsh.
• Develop good relationships with individual reporters who specialise in the issue you work on.
• If you can frame your story in a way that appeals to people beyond Wales, consider London-based media. A UK media ‘hit’ could be very influential. The Guardian is one outlet that covers Welsh political and cultural stories fairly regularly.
• Don’t put too much weight on the BBC’s big audience figures, as important as they are. Will Haywards’ newsletter, Nation.Cymru or Golwg are examples of platforms that reach decision-makers and politically-engaged people. ITV Wales and Wales Online are looking for human interest stories.