A busy weekend behind me and an even busier week ahead so I haven’t had much time to discuss Tuairisc, the newly launched Irish language current affairs website which is publicly funded by Foras na Gaeilge. It’s early days for the news service – a private company contracted for four years to the tune of €1.2 million – so I will go easy on the judgements but so far, so familiar. The website itself is built on a rather bland template, a somewhat dated “regional newspaper” style which I find personally unappealing, while content at the moment is fairly sparse. Three days after the largest political demonstration seen in the capital for a decade and two important by-elections, and there is only one article on the latter event (and more of an opinion piece than a news report). Meanwhile the last piece in the “International” section is five days old. Of course it takes several weeks for a media entity to build up a back-library of reports and articles but if Tuairisc is going to be relevant for the age we live in should be publishing a minimum of six news stories every 24 hours, both Irish and international. And if you think that a lot then go look at the likes of the tabloid, dross-loving Journal.ie or pop-satirical Broadsheet.ie, the two nearest examples of internet-only media in the nation (discounting Nuacht RTÉ for the moment). Maybe that level of productivity will eventually be achieved; as I said this is just the launch and much needs to be done. However that should happen sooner rather than later or the initial publicity and favourable opinions of potential readers will disappear as they remain loyal to existing alternatives (dissatisfied internet visitors rarely return, no matter what the incentive. Business lesson number 1: don’t launch your product until your product is ready to be launched). That said, I wish the best of luck to all involved. In a country dominated by two media conglomerates, public and private, and where a plurality of opinions are non-existence another voice is very welcome indeed. Especially an Irish voice.
You can visit Tuairisc here, or through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (though no Android or iPhone apps yet!).
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
There are a few other respects in which Tuairisc.ie differs from the Journal etc. There’s no comment facility – ie no pretence at building up a community by providing a forum for feedback – or no use of links from Tuairisc to other sites within articles, all of which indicates a very Web 0.5 attitude prevails.
Also, more worryingly, Tuairisc.ie receives €300k annually from Foras na Gaeilge, an all Ireland implementation body, but there’s very little evidence that the northern contribution (25%) is getting bang for its buck. That is to say Tuairisc.ie has a partitionist southern media mindset. An opinion poll which featured on launch day was conducted in the south only. This is a serious problem as one of the reasons Tuairisc.ie was set up with Foras funding was to respond to a European Charter for Minority Languages requirement to provide for a daily newspaper in Irish. This was a provision fought for by the Gaeilgoristas in the north of Ireland.
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Yes, the lack of hyperlinks was odd, especially for a dedicated online publication. I know that internet media tend to conform to the same tried-and-tested design formulae (menus-top, articles-left, advertising-right, etc.) however I was expecting something more than just a clone of Foinse. It all seems a wee bit old fashioned in the age of Medium or Tumblr, even when you take into account the costs involved for a (in-house?) design-team, hosting, traffic, browser-/device-responsiveness, etc.
The absence of a Comment system (even plug-in like Disqus) and only a couple of social media share buttons per article is a bit mad. And no smartphone/tablet apps from the get-go. It’s not 2004. Despite all the criticisms made about trolling, etc. people want to mouth-off. That’s half the success of the Journal, the bear-pit commentariat. Other sites cultivate a more collective or community atmosphere. In either case it is a must-have.
I don’t know why they didn’t go with Nuacht24. It’s there, it works, it has an online presence (a dot.com no less), a considerable back-library of short articles, so why not the regular funding to expand and grow it?
Reinventing the wheel again only to pull the plug again in 4 years 😦
Yes, the absence of an all-Ireland perspective (and the headlining with an Irish language specific story from the get-go) is puzzling. It needs to think nationally and internationally. Water-charges, by-elections, etc. should be the national leads today.
It could do with a bit of Broadsheet irreverence or iconoclasm too.
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Business lesson?
This is no business.
Why would I try to improve my product if there is no real competition and I don’t risk with my property but instead get free money from the state?
Where are privately owned Irish-language media that do not get handouts from the state?
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You have a point with that one, Jānis, though it takes time to cultivate Irish language media, as we have seen with TG4. Journalists don’t spring from nowhere and its very early days for Tuairisc, though admittedly I’m less hopeful than I was. The set-up budget is pitiful given that 500,000 euros is usually stated to be the launch budget for a successful online media company. That is separate from the first year running budget, which in this case is a respectable 300,000+ pa. By skimping on the budget at the get-go they are doomed to be playing permanent catch-up.
I actually disagree with setting up Tuairisc. I believe the money would have been better spent completely separating TG4’s news and current affairs from RTÉ and creating its own independent news division, funded by the state (which Foras na Gaeilge is a body of).
Irish language planning and services are dreadful. There is no joined-up thinking, no strategies, no synchronisation, no synergy. Just money thrown to the winds in the hope that some of it will do some good somewhere. It’s embarrassing and a scandal.
There are several existing Irish language media companies, Nuacht24, etc. that could have received the funding.
Again, I would argue for uniting TG4 with RnaG and creating a completely independent Irish language public service broadcaster, not one reliant on RTÉ for handouts. And one HQ’d in Dublin.
You are right to criticise this one.
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You said there are ~600k people who speak Irish at least weekly or so.
That’s almost 2 times more than number of people who speak Icelandic and is comparable to the number of Estonian speakers (900k or so).
In both of those countries there are private media that publish in the national language and do not get handouts from the state. Even more – they pay taxes and compete between themselves.
If the numbers you quoted are not exaggerated lies, then surely there must be a demand for information in Irish.
So where are all the private Irish language media that are competing for the consumers?
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There are a handful of private Irish language media operating at the moment. However they are small shoe-string operations, unable to compete with English language media for advertising, financing, contracts, etc. Most are unknown outside of the Irish-speaking community. Unfortunately anglophone media, both domestic and foreign, dominate the Irish media market and in all segments from news to entertainment. Companies that operate on budgets of thousands of euros per year cannot compete with those that operate on budgets of hundreds of millions.
Remember that at least 60% of RTÉ’s TV broadcasts are of foreign shows and series, despite 200 million euros of licence fee and state funding (for dramas that rises to 85%+). For TV3/3e nearly 90% of all programmes are bought from overseas (and 100% of all drams/comedies are foreign).
So you need to place these things in context.
Now look at France, a country of 66 million people with several million more native-speakers in other Francophone nations or regions. Most would see no comparison with the situation of Irish-speakers in Ireland. Yet the entire media industry in France relies on state-subsidies, precisely because they are competing with the global dominance of English language productions. All of the major French newspapers are underwritten by the state to the tune of millions of euros per annum (despite most being private enterprises). The French movie industry depends on state financing and tax-breaks (again for privately owned studios and production companies). The quota system for French radio has kept the francophone music industry healthy. So France, despite its size, wealth and global reach, also makes use of public-funding across the board, which many private companies can avail of. These is seen as a cultural and political necessity that very few French object to, from the Left or Right.
My own views on the situation in Ireland are well-known through ASF. I don’t support RTÉ as currently envisioned and operating. I believe it should become solely an Irish language public service broadcaster with two TV channels, three radio stations, an online service and film-production arm (and probably a publishing imprint too). The resources of TG4 should be rolled into this and TG4 should cease to exist. And that would be my limit for funding Irish language media. English language TV and radio (and movie-making) should be left solely to the private market in Ireland, free of any state-funding. Any private Irish language media that grow thereafter should be self-sustaining (unless contracted to RTÉ).
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There definitely should be an English language public service broadcaster in Ireland that provides an independent source of news and opinions.
It would be foolish to leave it to media from foreign countries.
Of course other English speaking countries are not nearly as hostile to Ireland as Russia is to its former colonies.
However there still are some areas where foreign news sources may be biased – like news about Palestine, Israel, Northern Ireland and other sensitive topics.
Also would you really want to rely on BBC to know what’s happening in Dublin?
That’s the reason why Latvian government is funding a Russian language public service broadcaster.
Its purpose is to provide an alternative news source in Russian and not leave broadcasting in Russian solely to media that are controlled by Kremlin.
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Remember that at least 60% of RTÉ’s TV broadcasts are of foreign shows and series
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There is a similar situation in Latvia – but so what?
Small nations have to rely on content that’s produced in foreign countries.
And that’s not a bad thing – I don’t want to be like an average English-monoglot-American who’s ignorant about what’s happening outside of the USA.
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Busy day so forgive the short answer.
Private media companies in Ireland, regulated with majority Irish ownership (minimum 80%) and agreed public service remit on news, current affairs and eduction, would cover all those concerns (already common regulations in Europe). None of those conditions now exist. TV3/3e is owned by Doughty Hanson & Co, a London equity fund, and has almost no restrictions on what it must provide or not provide. Hence all the dross. It is “ITV Ireland”. When the new UTV Ireland launches next year it will be another ITV clone with near-zero clauses on what it must provide. No minimal standards worth talking about on quality, domestically-allocated programme budgets, children’s programming, dramas, news, etc. They will be more or less free to do what they want (as TV3 proved).
Private market, properly regulated, can cover English language broadcasting. If necessary favourable tax arrangements can be put in place.
Irish language broadcasting should be public – until sufficient audience numbers engendered toe encourage private companies.
Almost all of RTÉ’s drama and comedy broadcasts are non-Irish. That is not similar to many other European nations.
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It’s similar to many other small nations.
Latvian broadcasters also show mostly foreign stuff – mainly from the USA and Russia.
It’s not surprising that Irish broadcasters do the same – it’s even easier for them, because they don’t even have to translate anything.
Even with subsidies small nations simply can’t compete with the USA.
There’s no incentive to achieve top quality if you’re getting handouts – just half-ass enough to qualify for the next handout and continue the same way.
And quota system just leads to more uncompetitive garbage getting on air.
There is a “Latvian music only” radio station in Latvia, but it plays mostly unlistenable rubbish – I believe that French radio is no different.
(There are of course good bands in Latvia too, but because of our nation’s small size their output is not enough)
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