All I was pointing out – whether it’s 0.003 per cent or 0.021% [though guesswork is hardly a basis for a sound argument] – is that no traditional Irish language media can be described as sustainable without public funding, given the costs involved.

Also the funding issue has to be factored in – Nuacht TG4′s annual funding is at least 5 times more than Lá Nua’s – so that kind of reduces your effectiveness factor.

No shadow of a doubt Nuacht TG4 is better funded than Lá was, and I know that there is a difference between broadcasting and print.

In ROI, 675000 newspaper copies are sold daily. Lá (North and South) sold 2000. i.e. 0.003%

RTE and TV3 news get around 750000 viewers I guess. Nuacht TG4 gets 16000, which is 0.021%

In other words they are seven times more effective in their market than Lá.

Now they are better resourced, and TV is an easier medium for learners, and they have attractive girls and all that.

But your comparison pooh-poohed Nuacht TG4 in comparison to Lá.

Which needed challenging mo bhuachaill…

Full on weekly newspapers, whether PDF or otherwise, don’t grow on trees. A blog is all that’s available and thanks to the provision of Foras na Gaeilge for publications is all that will be available.

You will be cheered to know, however, that numerous annual reports, apart from the Foras na Gaeilge reports for 2004-7 which are not yet published, will be available in Irish. That’s the type of reading material that, apparently, does grow on trees.

I am not working at Lá Nua so I am unaware of the letters situation. This is the latest and final trauma for Lá Nua – every other time we survived by the skin of our teeth and by the dint of our own resources being pared to the bone and beyond. This time, the newspaper is genuinely breathing its last and the last edition will be available tomorrow.

Good to see you blogging here. I look forward to your entries, although I will have a hard time following the ones i nGaeilge.

Concubhar,

Where is that figure of 16,000 viewers from? TG4 itself?

Hopefully whatever follows Lá Nua will be more than the blog that was linked earlier. A full-on weekly PDF newspaper would be best.

Lastly, has Lá Nua been receiving many letters from its readers? What’s the general sense out there? Outrage? Resignation? Optimism for a new dawn? etc Can anyone here fill us non-Irish speakers in?

I see all the Lá stories by way of Gaelport.com, but I can only follow the English language snippets from other papers.
http://gaelport.com/index.php?page=clippings&dates=2008-12&viewby=date

I’d still like to hear what occupation someone might have that would mean that La Nua was essential reading. I’m guessing it’s in the public sector.

Another reminder from Animal Farm. It seems that Comrade Joe is of the ‘One Language good, two languages bad’ school of thought, in particular when the other language is Irish….

TG4 seems to have more English than Irish on it these days. When they show the Euromillions lottery the announcer (and a fine looking girl she is!) calls out one number in Irish and then the next in English. I mean what is the point in that! Surely a Béarladoir can work out what the number is from the on-screen graphic FFS!! Is droch é Euromillions.

The expression of ideas through a language that has an important cultural place in OWC ought to be nurtured. Instead we’ve had local rags feeding us page after page of rubbish about the Quigglet, or ” Sure wasn’t Woolies great for pick’n'mix?” stories -and rotting our brains.

Irish-like gaelic sport- needs to find its place in NI, far far away from those who use it as a political badge of differentiating. It absolutely needs a proper paper to do so, even though its real viability is always going to be its everyday usage.

For all I know the paper was a turgid Spartist MOPEfest, but that’s not the point. It deserved to survive, provoke, outrage and educate. But then I still miss the voice of presbyterianism, the “Northern Whig” -murdered by the evil episcopalian “News Letter”…

How many in the RoI, or any Gaeltacht, subscribed?

Daily Post having a go in Welsh for £0 also… Web version only.

It can be called ‘Irish’ because it is the old language unique to this island of Ireland!

Come on it’s not rocket science UMH…Why are you so pedantic?

DEWI

£600k on Golwg! Check out the latest Irish magazine – http://www.nosmag.com – it, like An Druma Mór, receives a staggering £0!

I think posters as Gaeilge of victorious teams whether they’re GAA or not are a good thing in a newspaper. They’re important accessories for young people to kit out their bedrooms with etc . The fact is that the edition you bought was that which was aimed at schools. So that’s why you have so much content directed at schools.

As for translating sports stories ‘badly’ from RTE and BBC websites – the same applies as above re press releases. Sports stories such as who’s beaten who or who’s going where in transfers are all pooled but they’re made available in English so they have to be translated. Whether the translation is good or bad is another thing which may be a result of any number of factors.

Was it crap? I’m sure some people thought it so – others thought it was a good start and had it got a fair wind behind it, it would have improved. The fair wind never came…..

What will the party do if Foinse’s sales figures are ever revealed to the public? What will it do if the general population realise the €1+ subvention to TG4 Nuacht from RTE’s licence fee is being enjoyed by just 16,000 people on a nightly basis….the average viewership for the main RTE News is somewhere in the region of 400,000 viewers….

It wasn’t about market share you see in the end – what it was about was SF getting a petty revenge against Lá Nua after that paper demonstrated the party’s failure to do anything substantial for An Ghaeilge in the new power ‘sharing’ arrangement with the DUP in NI….

Joseph – for such a nice bloke you are terribly prejudiced when it comes to language. There’s a cultural hinterland that ain’t served by English language media.

I don’t accept that, and I don’t see that the loss of La Nua will disadvantage anyone in particular. I’m not dancing on their grave, but I don’t see the big deal.

I’d still like to hear what occupation someone might have that would mean that La Nua was essential reading. I’m guessing it’s in the public sector.