I’ve just been checking out some Welsh food websites and wonder if Wag has been listening to me – again? Yesterday as I tried to visit truetastetv, but I was re-directed to walesthetruetaste, a site that has been owned by the old WDA since 2002.
Not sure what has happened here but surely one Wag food site has got to be better than still playing and confusing people with two sites, isn’t it? I’ve never been able to see the point of Wag trying to run two food websites, when neither were producing reasonable rankings, let alone rankings to be proud of.
According to Alexa rankings, WTTT was ranked @ 1,738,166, whilst thanks to you,
welshfoodbites is ranked @ 411,105. Rankings taken over a three month period by Alexa. I’m amazed at these rankings and the unbelievebale support you have given me and the team. It’s great getting your feedback whenever we see you, or talk to you.
Can I re-assure you that any comments you wish to add are totally confidential – well apart from me that is – unless you wish to put your name to your feedback. I appreciate that some of you don’t want your name highlighted and understand your reasons why, so please don’t worry, that will never happen, you can trust me.
Sal
March 22, 2012 at 2:41 pm
This is my best, best, best foodie site and packed full of so much news, views and gossip.
keep up the good work and keep supporting our producers and welsh food
cup cake
March 27, 2012 at 1:54 pm
this site is totally fantastic
I’m a regular reader of welsh country and love to bits there food coverage and the amount pf pages that are devoted to local food and what is going on in Wales on the food side.
but I also adore this site and get so much information and info, the only drawback is I spend so much time on here, it’s a distraction and should have a food warning!!!
back now to baking —————-
Jess
March 28, 2012 at 11:01 am
Not totally sure that wag listen to you.
If only wag did listen to you Kath, we’d have a far better industry and would actually feel better knowing that our views do count.
I think what many of us forget, or just don’t think about is that wag works for us. Well that’s the theory isn’t it? If only that was how it worked in real life, our lives would be easier. Civil Servants who came up with that title?????
Jam man
March 28, 2012 at 4:04 pm
I agree with Jess, wag agree with your views, you’re being very silly if you believe that. Take your tongue out of your cheek. Wag couldn’t bear you to get big-headed believing that anything you put up on here would be interesting to them. Wag know everything about food after all.
Seriously though it’s a big pity that wag don’t listen to you and Ian. You are one of the few that we see out and about all over at festivals and markets. One of your biggest advantages is that you stop and talk to us if we are not busy and the best bit actually listen to our views.
The difference you have made to us in the trade with welshfoodbites is gi- normous. I applaud you and your staff for what you have done for local food in welsh country mag too. I’m proud to say I support the magazine and will continue to do so. But as an adopted welshman I’m not proud that our government food department no longer support this brilliant magazine.
I don’t care how tight their budgets are, how much they been cut, they could still find money to pay a company to run an organisers conference.
Sorry Kath and Ian but you are rocking wags boat and they haven’t got the guts to say they’ve got lots wrong, you’ve got lots right and admit you can help them. It would take a very large person in wag food to back down and say that, but my goodness me they’d get more support from producers if they had the bottle to do that.
Maybe that will happen soon, but I’m scared to hold my breathe on it. I think they are being bullying instead of being professional and working to what is best to help us producers survive this economic downturn and then try and grow.
How sad this statre of affairs is and it is the food industry that is the loser along with you guys of course.
So until a truce is drawn keep up the good work on this website and keep sharing your stories.
Trace
March 29, 2012 at 9:44 am
I agree totally with Jess and Jam man
if wag DID listen to you then life would be easier for us traders, especially all the micro/smaller ones.
There has always been a lack of communication with wag food to us, and it is our fault because we’ve moaned behind their backs because many of us are too worried to face them with the facts of our trade and waht they are doing wrong, we are all cowards. Then you come along and upset the wag’s lovely apple cart, purely by telling it as it is, but only on welshfoodbites.
Your magazine continues to support welsh food with lots of pages in every issue. We’ve never had this promotion for welsh food before and it has been brilliant. But your punishment was that wag then stopped their adverts with you, and we traders then lost two more pages of food in welsh country. That’s not helped you obviously , but it hasn’t helped us either. But it is also a loss for wag but they don’t seem to understand pr and marketing too well. I think, but I’m not sure, their reason was no budget or budget cuts, the usual ones. But when reading welshfoodbites, wag can still find money to pay another company to run a conference for festival organisers, a conference that they have always run themselves. Is there any logic or sense there? Would £8k+ have helped welsh country?
Guess the conference money came out of a different budget. My view, knowing wag a little is that you guys have upset them with this website, but they aren’t grown-up enough to see that, so far, you have yet to run some of these great stories from welshfoodbites in the magazine. My suggestion is that you do just that. You will get lots of support from your readers if they learn the truth about what happens in wag food, and we as traders might also get extra support from them too. We do need more trade as markets and festivals continue their downturn in takings despite markets getting £800k and a 2-year project which made no difference at all apart from lining more company pockets.
Please think about doing this. You’ve no need to keep running food pages with positive news, when that is not the true picture in wales. I think your readers deserve the truth, so why not run one or two pages of welshfoodbites in welshcountry? Realise I know nothing about the media, but it’s obvious, even to me, that you’ll have the cost of two more pages to pay for, but think the power of print and the rewards could be well worth it.
trader
March 29, 2012 at 11:36 am
Hi Kath
I’m not sure if you’re being silly or just being cheeky, if you think the wizards at wag are listening to you, but there is no doubt from many of us that work in food, that they should.
This is an enormous pity and doesn’t help us at the sharp end with wag food attitude to us and with you people at the magazine. Don’t understand why this is happening, it’s so stupid.
But in these tough times we do need to work together more, yet we still have an us and them situation. We have a government department that neither listens or talks to us, we have a public that is feeling the pinch and not buying as much as they used to, but traders haven’t got the guts to stand our corner and oppose wag’s behaviour that always seems against producers. They are supposed to work for us but they have no idea of the pressures we are struggling under. Heard on the TV news that a fish company went down in the north. Scary news we don’t need, useful help from wag we do need but are unlikely to get.
So fellow traders, we have the civil servants we deserve and I suggest you lot stop moaning unless you are prepared to do as the guys with this site and magazine have done and stand up to wag. I’m ashamed of myself, I’m no better than the rest of you, but I need to do something.
admin
March 29, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Maybe silly and cheeky – who knows
admin
March 29, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Gosh thanks for your support, it means a lot not jsut to me but for all our team, because as you know they too are passionate about Welsh food.
Please don’t worry about wag’s lack of support for Welsh Country magazine from our side. It’s two pages lost each issue which we have to accept. I do understand though that you feel producers are losing out on this as well on another two food pages going in. But the other losers are our readers who know little if anything of what wag food is doing and it also means wag press releases aren’t put up on welshcountry.co.uk either. We also do that for our advertisers, it’s another way we can help them and show them extra value for their money and faith in us. As for your suggestion of publishing some of welshfoodbites in welsh country magazine well iin the past I’d have said no for sure and it certainly couldn’t have happened when wag were with us. That is not how we treat our advertisers as you well know. But now I must admit I’m really wavering. Another advantage is that it wouldn’t be much extra work and I do love blogging on welshfoodbites, getting views of people makes a huge difference especially as they are usually on my side. That makes a huge difference. A few people have told me to go the way you suggest, plus I’ve sounded out some producers to get their feedback over the last few months. So it is something I’m considering and so at the moment I’m thinking, why not?
beer man
March 30, 2012 at 11:42 am
I think we are generally in agreement on wag listening to you, but that could only be amusing if our trading situation was not so tough.
wag haven’t got the brains to realise the mistakes they have made with your magazine but goodness knows how many PR&Marekting people they employ and of course agencies too.
It’s so frustrating because they should be working and supporting you and us, as you have been supporting us over the years. Their two pages makes a difference to the coverage and of course extra pages we get, but the thing that really hits me in the face, means the public have little idea of what wag are doing. I could be more unkind and say well that’s not much, but they do give out money to food festivals. Even as a basic wag should be running regular lists of the festivals that are running every other month and also our markets need a massive shot in the arm, so why can’t they run a list of markets in each magazine? That’s what fork2fork should have done. That be a great way to constantly remind peple all over wales where their marekts are. There is no doubt markets are struggling and I will not talk any more about fork2fork, my language would be too raw.
I’m so fed-up of this wag carry on