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What magazine editors can learn from Welsh publishing

Welsh-language magazine funding, the Welsh Language Standards, 2021 census figures for Wales and Cardiff, and a bilingual editing routine that editors can copy.

Planning Desk · · 7 min read

What to take away

  • Welsh has official status in Wales under section 1 of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. The Welsh Language Standards bind the bodies the Measure lists, which are mainly public bodies and certain service providers. Magazine publishing is not a listed category in the schedules reviewed here.
  • The 2021 census counted 538,300 people aged three and over in Wales who can speak Welsh, 17.8 percent. In Cardiff the count was 42,757, or 12.2 percent, up from 11.1 percent in 2011.
  • Welsh-language magazines can be funded through the Books Council of Wales. Grants are typically awarded for four years, by competitive tender. The 2027 to 2031 round had a budget of £367,000 a year from the Welsh Government.
  • The grant scheme does not support educational magazines or magazines of local appeal. No more than 66 percent of a funded magazine's income may come from grants.
  • Editorial suggestioncommission and edit each language as its own edition, not as a translation of the other.

Who the Welsh Language Standards bind

Section 1 of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gives Welsh official standing in Wales and says the Measure does not change the status of English (Measure, section 1). The Measure creates the Welsh Language Commissioner. Welsh Ministers specify standards in regulations, and the Commissioner decides which standards a body must follow by serving a compliance notice.

The standards fall into service delivery, policy making, operational, promotion and record keeping categories. The first set of regulations, the Welsh Language Standards (No. 1) Regulations 2015, sets out those five categories in Schedules 1 to 5, with Schedule 6 for supplementary matters (regulations).

Who can be required to comply is set out in the Measure's schedules:

  • Schedule 6lists public bodies. Examples include Welsh Ministers, county and county borough councils, national park authorities, universities, the Arts Council of Wales, the Welsh Books Council, the National Library of Wales and the National Museum of Wales. The magazine funder is therefore itself a listed body.
  • Schedule 8covers "qualifying persons" providing listed services: gas, electricity, water and sewerage, post, telecommunications, bus services and passenger railway services, education and career guidance, training where the provider receives public money, and providers serving the public under agreements with government bodies (Measure contents).

Magazine publishing does not appear as a category in the schedule text reviewed. Coverage depends on the service provided and on a compliance notice, not on the fact that a company publishes in Wales. Check your own position with the Welsh Language Commissioner before assuming either way. The Commissioner describes the standards as duties on organisations that give Welsh speakers the right to use the language when dealing with them (Commissioner).

The standards are a language-rights regime. They are separate from press conduct rules. For regulation of the press, see the pieces on IPSO and Ofcom rules in Belfast and on IPSO rulings for magazine editors.

What the census says about the audience

The census date was 21 March 2021. The Welsh Language Commissioner's summary gives 538,300 Welsh speakers aged three and over in Wales, 17.8 percent of that age group, and 42,757 in Cardiff (Commissioner, 2021 census). The Office for National Statistics comparison page for Cardiff shows 12.2 percent of residents aged three and over able to speak Welsh in 2021, against 11.1 percent in 2011, a rise of 1.1 percentage points and just over 6,000 speakers (ONS).

Two cautions for planning.

  • The census counts people who say they can speak Welsh. It does not count readers or buyers. Editorial suggestion: treat it as the ceiling for a Welsh-language audience in an area, and set subscriber targets from your own sales and reach data.
  • A 2023 Senedd statement of opinion encourages the Welsh Government to keep supporting papurau bro, the local Welsh-language papers, as part of its efforts to reach one million Welsh speakers by 2050 (Senedd record). That target is a policy goal, not a forecast.

How Welsh-language magazines are funded

The Books Council of Wales funds Welsh-language and English-language magazines through core grants paid for by Creative Wales, awarded as block grants over four years by two independent Publishing Development Subcommittees, one for each language (Books Council, support for magazines). The Welsh-language grants are awarded by competitive tender every four years and are open to new and existing applicants. The amount depends on the Welsh Government's funding (Books Council, Welsh-language grants).

The tender for 2027 to 2031 ran from 9 February to 20 April 2026, with grants paid from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2031, subject to continued Welsh Government funding. The tender guidelines set out what the panel looks for (guidelines).

ItemWhat the 2027 to 2031 guidelines say
Budget£367,000 a year, down from £380,000, from the Welsh Government's Publication Grant
Not supportedEducational magazines and magazines of local appeal
Income limitNo more than 66 percent of total magazine income from grants; volunteer contributions can count toward the remaining 33 percent
Scoring weightsFilling a gap in the market 25 percent; editorial standards 20; production standards 20; sales or reach against potential 15; commercial income and sponsorship 10; management 10
DocumentsTen recent copies, the latest accounts, three recent printing estimates, an equality policy, commissioning and submission guidelines, and evidence of welcoming new and diverse contributors
Also expectedRegular reviews of relevant Welsh-language books, and a plan for digital presence

The English-language side has two schemes: Cultural Periodicals Grants, awarded by tender every four years, with the next round for 2028 to 2032 and applications during 2027, and annual Small Literary Magazines Grants, with a usual application deadline in May (English-language grants).

Editorial suggestion: three lessons carry over to any small title.

  1. Show the gap.A quarter of the score is about what your title offers that existing titles do not.
  2. Plan for mixed income.A cap on grant share forces a plan for sales, sponsorship and advertising from the first issue.
  3. Write your commissioning rules down.The Books Council asks for submission guidelines and evidence that new and diverse contributors are welcome. A written policy helps with any funder. The commissioning guide covers how to write one.

Titles worth studying

The Books Council's list of supported titles is a source of verified names (Books Council, magazines). Among the Welsh-language titles it lists:

  • Golwg, a current affairs magazine published weekly.
  • Barn, a current affairs magazine covering arts, science, the Welsh language and politics, published 10 times a year.
  • Y Selar, on contemporary Welsh music, published four times a year.
  • Cipand Wcw, for children, the second with an English translation for parents.
  • O'r Pedwar Gwynt, the Welsh book magazine, three times a year.

On the English-language side it lists Poetry Wales, The Welsh Agenda, Folding Rock and The Paper.

Two Cardiff-linked titles can be sourced from their own or official pages. Y Dinesydd is described in a Senedd statement as Wales's first papur bro, serving Cardiff and district, first published in April 1973 and run by volunteers (Senedd record). Buzz describes itself as covering art, culture and what's on in Wales, with a regional section covering South, Mid, West and North Wales (Buzz). The tender excludes magazines of local appeal. The guidelines do not define the term, so whether a title such as a papur bro counts as "of local appeal" is a question for the Books Council. Editorial suggestion: ask it before assuming eligibility, and plan funding that does not rest on this scheme alone.

A routine for editing in two languages

The Books Council's own scoring puts editorial and production standards at 40 percent combined. The routine below is the desk's own suggestion, not a rule from any funder or regulator.

Editorial suggestion:

  1. Decide the language of each piece at commissioning.Say whether it is written in Welsh, written in English, or planned in both.
  2. Brief both versions together.Late translation forces cuts, and the cuts usually land on the second language.
  3. Edit each version on its own terms.Sentences run to different lengths in different languages. Matching word counts line for line produces stiff copy.
  4. Keep one style guide with two sections.Include punctuation, capitalisation and the forms of place names, institutions and job titles in both languages. The copy editing guide covers the structure of a style sheet.
  5. Proof each language with a fluent reader.One proofreader per language is safer than one reader checking both.
  6. Name the authoritative version.If the two versions disagree after publication, the correction process needs to know which one governs.

Cardiff's census figures suggest a bilingual readership of tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands. For a small title that makes subscriptions, direct contact and events more useful than newsstand reach. That is the desk's reading of the numbers, not a sourced finding.

Sources

Filed undercardiff magazine publishingcardiffwelsh languageeditorial lessonswelsh titles

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