Welsh newspaper’s website to go behind paywall

Nation Cymru staff

The website of a Welsh local newspaper is set to adopt a subscription model and place its stories behind a paywall following a series of focus group events with its readers.

The move from the Abergavenny Chronicle follows a change in its ownership earlier this year, and comes as the website celebrates a growing readership and a record-breaking audience of 350,000 page views in August.

Sharing the news of a major change to its popular website on the evening of Sunday 13 September, its Editor, Liz Davies discussed the Chronicle’s “challenge” to cover the day to day news of a small town and the balance that its staff members have to strike between getting news out fast, and getting out respectfully with regard to human reality and the people behind its stories.

In a challenging media landscape for both newspapers and journalists themselves, Davies shared that the Chronicle will be asking readers to pay for some of its stories. It will, however, still host free-to-view pieces including “emergency information, public safety issues and essential public information”.

Liz Davies writes: “It’s been good to talk to some of our readers at our focus group events over the past few weeks and interesting to see how invested people are in the future – and the continued success – of the Abergavenny Chronicle.

“Over the past year or so, our website has gone from strength to strength and its reassuring to know that more people than ever are reading the stories we produce – last month we had almost 350,000 page views, which was a record for us.

“It’s always a challenge to cover the day to day happenings in a small town – what’s a breaking news story for some people is often family tragedy in the making for others and we are always very aware of this fact because for those of us who work on The Chronicle, this is our town as well and most of us have lived here all of our lives and been actively involved with the community for most of that time.

“Sometimes striking a balance between doing our job and respecting the community is a difficult one. Sometimes we’re called upon to hold a flame to the feet of those in power and sometimes that makes us unpopular, but we will continue to do it, if it’s for the benefit of the town – as I’ve said often before, a local newspaper should be ‘a town talking to itself’ with us eavesdropping on the conversation.

“We appreciate that the news isn’t always good and that behind every siren there is a human reality but equally our job as journalists is to cast light on these stories in a way that is as responsible and as accurate as possible so that when you click on our website you can be confident that its content is reliable and trustworthy.”

Davies adds: “It sometimes feels that it’s a no-win situation – if we break the news as it happens we are dubbed irresponsible and callous; if we hold off until we know the whole picture we are dubbed slow off the mark and irrelevant but whatever happens we will always try our very best to ensure we present the news not only as quickly as possible but also in a way which is sympathetic, accurate and trustworthy and we hope our readers will continue to turn to us for the truth behind the sirens and flashing lights.

“That does sadly come at a cost and in early October our website, will be adopting a subscription model, which is a fancy way of saying, we’ll be asking you to pay for some the stories you want to read.

“We know how important the news we provide is to the community and so we will never be asking readers to pay for some of the content we put online – emergency information, public safety issues and essential public information will still be available for you to read freely, but some of our stories will be going ‘behind a paywall’.”

New ownership

In March 2026, the Chronicle reported on its new ownership after more than 40 years spent as part of the Tindle Newspaper family.

It was announced on 27 March 2026 that the group’s newspaper and digital publishing businesses has been acquired by a joint venture between Iliffe Media Group Ltd and the Fowler family – a move described as a ‘significant new chapter for one of the UK’s most established local media groups’.

According to a news report at the time, the sales of the newspaper business ensure the titles will remain in private, family ownership, with a clear long-term commitment to independent, community-focused journalism.

Owen Tindle, Chairman of Tindle Newspapers said: “We believe this change of ownership represents the best strategy for our much-loved local brands to succeed in the long term. The titles will benefit from the greater combined resources of the new owners and their significant experience in developing sustainable digital subscription models.

“This has not been an easy decision for my family. The business was built by my late father and we are immensely proud of its rich heritage and the important role it has long played in the communities we serve.

“Being a responsible long-term custodian also means recognising when it is time for change.

“Given the scale and speed of digital transformation within our industry, and the competition from global technology platforms, we are passing the baton to owners with the resources and expertise to ensure the long-term sustainability of quality local journalism.”

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