ITN, ITV and newspapers join forces for new Welsh news service bid

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A new alliance of media companies will bid for the Welsh pilot of the UK government's planned Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC) scheme.

The existing ITV Wales news team, ITN and newspaper groups including Northcliffe Media, Newsquest and Tindle Group have joined forces as Taliesin News to launch the bid, which will be led by former ITV News chief executive and current non-executive director of S4C, Clive Jones.

The group will also include more than 25 newspaper titles and a range of local websites in an attempt to provide more in-depth, multi-platform coverage of Welsh news.

"With our strong newspaper footprint across Wales, we look forward to working with our partners and using our already excellent newspaper and internet resources to deliver an enhanced news service for Wales," says Brian Doel, managing director of Tindle Group, in a press release.

The Taliesin bid will go up against UTV, the Northern Ireland ITV franchise holder, which has already announced a partnership with newspaper group NWN Media for the Welsh pilot.

The IFNCs, which were first proposed by media regulator Ofcom and subsequently included in the government's Digital Britain report, will form a replacement service for ITV's regional news network, which will no longer run as a result of an estimated £38-£64 million deficit.

Pilot schemes covering Wales, Scotland and the Tyne Tees and Borders region will be launched next year. Speaking at a Westminster Media Forum event in October, chief executive John Hardie described ITN's involvement in the consortia bids as part of "a grand alliance" between local media groups: "Now is the time to create an entirely new service for the digital age. We will seek to form an unprecedented network of partnerships.

"Our virtual news network will bring an unrivalled breadth and depth of reporting for local audiences."

In November Trinity Mirror, the Press Association and TV production company Ten Alps formed a consortium to tender for the north east IFNC pilot . Ten Alps will also be involved with Independent News & Media in a bid for any IFNC trial in Northern Ireland. Yesterday UTV announced it would also be in the running for the Borders and Tyne Tees pilot .

Media groups interested in bidding for the IFNC pilots have until 30 December to submit a final "pre-qualification questionnaire" for the scheme. Ofcom will select up to four organisations for each pilot to go through to the next stage of assessment with the successful bids announced in late March.