The Guardian has appointed Bethan McKernan as Wales correspondent, as part of its ongoing commitment to deepen coverage outside London.
McKernan, who returns from reporting in Jerusalem, is the first person to be dedicated to Welsh news in over a decade for the title.
Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner has focused on broadening the Guardian’s journalism outside the capital during her ten-year tenure.
As part of the ongoing commitment to provide coverage across the country, the Guardian in the UK has reporters based in Scotland, Manchester, the North-East, the Midlands, the South-West and now Wales. Will Hayward will also continue in his role as a regular Guardian columnist on Wales.
McKernan has anchored the Guardian’s reporting of the Middle East and the events that have unfolded in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories since the October 7 attacks. Having worked in the region for 10 years, her experience, judgment and contacts have been at the heart of the Guardian’s impressive and comprehensive journalism on a difficult and complex story.
Speaking of the appointment, editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said:
“I’m delighted that the Guardian is to have our first Wales correspondent in many years, and that someone of Bethan’s calibre will be in the role. Expanding our coverage of Wales is part of our ongoing commitment to increasing on-the-ground reporting across the UK: we now cover Britain outside of London much more fully, with journalists based in Scotland, Manchester, the north-east, the Midlands, the south-west and now Wales.
“We believe we have a responsibility to understand local communities and report on the issues that impact them, which often differ significantly from those facing Londoners. Wales is a crucial part of the British story, as well as having a distinct identity, politics and culture of its own, and Bethan could not be better placed to report on it.”
Bethan McKernan said:
“I’m delighted to be coming home to Wales. I am returning after a decade working in the Middle East as a different person, and Wales is a different country to the one I left.
We’re a year out from the Senedd elections and Wales’ political sphere is changing fast, which has implications for the rest of the UK too. The country’s traditionally rock-solid support for Labour has collapsed, while Plaid Cymru’s independence movement and the far-right Reform party are both surging.
“Wales is so often neglected in the national conversation and the ways its government, society and culture differ from the rest of the country often misunderstood. I’m looking forward to helping change that, building on the Guardian’s track record of rigorous public interest reporting.”
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About the Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group is amongst the world’s leading media organisations. Its core business is Guardian News & Media (GNM), publisher of theguardian.com, one of the largest English-speaking quality news websites in the world.
In the UK, Guardian Media Group publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821. Since launching its US and Australian digital editions in 2011 and 2013, respectively, traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. The Guardian also has an international digital edition and a new European edition that launched in 2023, with an expanded network of more than 20 European correspondents, editors and reporters.
Last year, the Guardian also appointed its first-ever Caribbean correspondent, a South America correspondent and two Africa correspondents.
