A former broadcasting chief has pledged to create five journalism jobs as part of plans to create a new print and digital “national news service” for Wales.

Huw Marshall, the former head of digital at Welsh language TV channel S4C, is aiming to launch the venture under the name New Media Wales in the coming months.

Media organisations which currently cover the whole of Wales include Reach plc’s Wales Online website, BBC Wales and S4C, but Huw claims the country is “remarkable within a European context in having no national newspaper and news service”

Huw, pictured, is currently calling for financial backing for the project in order to fund a content editor role and four journalists to cover news, politics, business, culture and sport.

So far a crowdfunding initiative has seen 48 patrons pledge a total of £333 per month to the project.

He had planned to launch the Wales-wide venture in September in both print and digital, but is now aiming to bring forward an online-only launch due to the coronavirus crisis – with a print product launching once there is a “return to normality”.

An About Us piece on the organisation’s website states: “Wales is remarkable within a European context in having no national newspaper and news service. We have numerous regional titles yet the two most read newspapers in Wales are English titles published in London, The Daily Mail and The Metro.

“As the current Covid-19 pandemic has increasingly made clear the UK national print titles pay scant regard to devolution. When discussing health and education they are in fact discussing the health and education services of England.

“In such circumstances is it a wonder why discussions around the future of Wales, its institutions and politics, at local, regional and national levels aren’t being discussed within our communities?

“It doesn’t have to be this way. We aim to resolve this poor state of affairs by launching Wales first independent, national news service, in print, online and across all relevant social media channels, one that views everything through a Welsh lens.”

In a blog post about his plans, Huw wrote: “We are developing a fully functioning news and media business to serve the whole of Wales, one that delivers the level of service you would expect from a national platform.

“We passionately believe that print still has a future and our research suggests many of you do to. Having a weekly print edition will help us reach an audience who do not currently access their news digitally and introduce print to a new generation by offering relevant content, presented intelligently and honestly.

“Our output will be produced through a Welsh lens, raising awareness around the functions of our institutions, and importantly holding them to account, asking the sometimes-difficult questions that the residents of Wales expect answers to.

“We will be politically neutral, we have to be, our aim will be to deliver scrutiny and clarity around the policies being proposed by the various political parties in Wales in the run up to the Welsh general election being contested in May 2021.”

“We are hugely ambitious and all the above can only be delivered with your support, be that by subscribing to our services or buying a paper when it becomes available.

“Our technical infrastructure is already in place, we need the financial security to employ the four journalists we need to launch a fully functioning news service.”