For The Towns With No Newspaper, Online Upstarts Try Filling A Gap

A TV producer, a rugby club and a university are the latest players to try filling a content gap in Neath and Port Talbot, the south Wales towns left without a local newspaper when Trinity Mirror folded its Neath and Port Talbot Guardians in 2009.

FYI-Neath, the latest in what is now several budding replacement efforts, is due to be launched by former ITV.com content head Marc Webber’s Dipping Bridge consultancy together with local independent TV producer Telesgop and Neath Rugby Football Club, supported by UTV’s local Swansea Sound and The Wave radio stations. FYI-Neath, which counts four “staff” from across its partners, will trade on curating content it hopes locals will contribute, rather than producing much of its own. “We’re not trying to own the content - we’re trying to create an umbrella,” Webber said. The site will include articles written by council clerks, local politicians and stringers who once submitted their material to the Guardian, and will pull planning applications and council minutes from Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council.