Swansea I
Ruth Addicott looks at life and work in the Welsh city
f you stand by Swansea Bay and look out over the sea, you can see the lights from the steelworks in Port Talbot flickering in the distance. The town has been synonymous with
steel for more than a century and employed nearly 20,000 people at its peak. The steelworks’ impending closure is a massive story. Dean Thomas, Swansea correspondent for ITV Wales, says
that for the surrounding community, it is akin to the closure of the mines. “It has that gravity around it in terms of impact and the fear of what it means for the community, not just the workers but also the supply chains that go into the factory,” he says. “The vast majority of the workforce will come from Swansea – it is going to have a huge impact.” Thomas was born in Swansea and has worked for ITV Wales since 2009. “People in Swansea think they don’t get heard – they get ignored, particularly in seats of power in the Senedd and Westminster – so my job is to get Swansea’s issues at the top of the agenda. If I can lead that bulletin, whether it be the maternity scandal or Port Talbot, I get to represent the community.” His investigation into the maternity unit at Singleton Hospital led to the Welsh Government putting the unit into enhanced monitoring and an independent review, but he is one of the few reporters on the ground. ITV Cymru Wales, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Radio Wales are based in Cardiff. Welsh language broadcaster S4C is in Carmarthen. Local radio station Swansea Sound is now Greatest Hits Radio South Wales, owned by Bauer.
covers Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath and Port Talbot. It was founded in 1893 (Dylan Thomas worked there briefly) and is published by Reach. The paper has seen huge cuts like everywhere else, which
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included the closure of its previous headquarters in Adelaide Street, which looked like the office from The Office. Staff now work predominantly from home. The website merged with WalesOnline in 2017 and, along with the Carmarthen Journal and Llanelli Star, became part of the national Media Wales business (which owns the Cardiff- based Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the Celtic Weekly Newspapers). Kathy Thomas joined the South Wales Evening Post as senior reporter in 1991 and worked there for 24 years. She covered the devolution vote, the 1997 Labour landslide and the Clydach murders and years of ensuing appeals. “There was always a Swansea link to nationwide stories – one of Fred West’s victims, someone in Lockerbie, someone working in the Twin Towers,” she recalls. “Gradually, fewer and fewer of us were required to do more
and work longer hours while becoming more of an irrelevance to the community as we watched sales plummet. “It didn’t matter that we were still the largest-selling paper
in Wales – that just meant we were haemorrhaging readers more slowly than our rivals.” Thomas eventually made the move to comms with other former colleagues and is now press officer at Swansea University. “In an ideal world, I would still be there now, part of a
When it comes to TV and film, Swansea has become a
sought-after location. ITV World Productions filmed its upcoming drama Until I Kill You in the city, which tells the true story of Delia Balmer and her relationship with murderer John Sweeney. The Bay Studios have facilities on the outskirts and Dragon Studios, the largest film and TV complex in Wales, is near Bridgend. The daily newspaper is the South Wales Evening Post and
10 | theJournalist
Spotlight on... NATASHA HIRST
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