ACM TO FOLD 8 MORE NEWSPAPERS

Australian Community Media, the country’s biggest regional newspaper publisher, will stop printing another eight regional newspapers in NSW from next month.

ACM laid the blame for the closure at the feet of social media giant Meta, and its decision not to renew its $200m three-year deal with local newspaper publishers.

The Inverell Times, Moree Champion, Tenterfield Star, Glen Innes Examiner and Country Leader in the state's New England and north-west, the Dungog Chronicle and Gloucester Advocate between the Hunter Valley and the Barrington Coast, and the Milton-Ulladulla Times on the South Coast will discontinue their weekly printed editions from next month.

These are in addition to Blayney Chronicle and Oberon Review newspapers in the NSW central-west, which were published for the final time on August 22.

In addition to the withdrawal of funds by Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, ACM is also citing local, state and federal government for ending their advertising in local newspapers and switching to digital communications, and it says general advertising in its newspapers is also decreasing.

ACM says the drop in revenue, combined with rapidly rising costs, means the newspapers are unsustainable. It says every title in its portfolio is impacted by Meta’s decision to turn away from its deal with local publishers. Meta says only three per cent of its users access news, a figure Lucie Peart, president of Country Press NSW, said, “is impossible to believe”.

ACM, owned by Anthony Catalano and Thorney Investments, bought what was the Fairfax regional newspaper business from Nine Entertainment five years ago, paying $115m for 160 titles and nine print sites. Since then, it has closed or sold almost all its print sites, and closed dozens of papers, sending more to an online-only model.

Fairfax regional newspapers was the business built by legendary publisher John Armarti, who took it over from his father Leo, who founded the business in 1945. Dubbo became the focal point of the Armati empire, and became the biggest printing centre outside of Sydney. Fairfax closed the print plant in 2016.

The decision by Facebook and Instagram owner Meta not to renew its news contracts with local publishers, and to stop the $200m that goes with it, has hit the metro titles, with both News and Nine laying off staff, and is predicted to have profound implications for remaining regional and community newspapers. The non-metro newspaper sector has already been in steep decline since Covid, with in excess of 100 local printed newspapers lost forever. Now dozens more printed local papers could join them.

The 126-year-old Broken Hill newspaper Barrier Daily Truth has also closed its doors, with the threat of no Meta money meaning it could not carry a $176,000 debt.