WalesOnline reaches half the adults in Wales, new figures show. According to figures from the industry-recognised audience monitor Ipsos Iris, WalesOnline reaches 45% of adults in Wales every month (and a higher percentage in Cardiff and Swansea). This is the highest figure for any regional news website in the UK.
Interestingly, it also reaches 13% of UK adults (the exact definition of adult in this case is the total number of people aged 15 and over with access to the internet). The figures are an ongoing testament to the breadth and importance of the journalism being done at WalesOnline, which this month is also the most-nominated newsroom in the UK at the Regional Press Awards.
That journalism includes our ongoing investigations into the appalling practices at sales firms. First we exposed one Cardiff-based firm taking advantage both of their own workers and the "customers" they cold-called and lied to in their own homes, then we exposed another doing the same thing (as well as pouring cream over its young workers for missing sales targets).
After we published our stories, both these offices shut down instantly, the people in them vanished and their websites disappeared. But given the high probability of them popping up somewhere else in the UK doing the same thing all over again, WalesOnline will keep up the pressure on politicians to clamp down on this kind of operation. Speaking of which, it was very encouraging to see the Fundraising Regulator recently releasing a report saying changes had to be made in how charities fundraise as a direct result of what was exposed by WalesOnline. It's the first time it has ever taken action like this.
We also revealed how a company which donated £200,000 to Wales' new First Minister Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign (a sum previously unheard of in Welsh politics) wanted to build a major solar farm on the outskirts of Cardiff which Mr Gething's Welsh Government would ultimately be responsible for approving or rejecting. And we've just exposed a shocking series of deaths at a crisis-hit Welsh prison.
WalesOnline is a leader in reporting what is happening in Wales, whether that is breaking news in the here and now or uncovering the things happening under the radar that would never come to light if it wasn't for our reporters. And while many people will think their lives can do without this kind of reporting, it's clear from the data above how far we reach.
It's important that people are aware of WalesOnline's scale and impact to ensure that no narrative ever takes hold which seeks to portray it, and websites like it across the UK, as unreliable or increasingly irrelevant. Journalism faces many challenges at the moment, from its own business models to the impact of social media to the actions of the BBC (which you can read more about here). But it is as strong and as challenging as it ever has been, and reaches more people.
Today, that is as important as ever. The proliferation of fake news and conspiracy theories around the Princess of Wales that spread uncontrollably across all social media platforms in the first three months of this year showed that clearly.
