Australian Community Media to close Blayney Chronicle and Oberon Review after Meta loss

Australian Community Media will close two newspapers permanently and switch to a new publishing model for several of its regional mastheads as it shifts its focus to digital.

Australian Community Media will reduce newspapers in Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst to only Saturday editions.

Australian Community Media will close two newspapers permanently and switch to a new publishing model for several of its regional mastheads as it shifts its focus away from print editions to digital.

The move will result in up to 12 job losses, including two across sales, and comes as a result of the rising cost of distributions and the looming loss of funding from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, which is abandoning a deal to pay for journalism.

ACM, which has more than 100 titles across Australia, will close both the print and digital editions of Blayney Chronicle and Oberon Review in the central west region of NSW.

It will no longer offer Monday to Friday print editions of the Central Western Daily in Orange, the Daily Liberal in Dubbo and the Western Advocate in Bathurst.

A Saturday-only edition will exist in those markets when changes take effect from Monday August 26. ACM will also change the distribution of the Mudgee Guardian from Friday to Saturday as part of the changes.

ACM executive chairman Antony Catalano. Picture: David Geraghty

ACM managing director Tony Kendall told The Australian that the media company was continuing to review operations across the company given rising distribution costs and the funding it received from Meta is due to end in the coming months.

“The Meta funding hasn’t finished yet but we are continually reviewing operations. It’s clear there are challenges in the business with Meta pulling out. We’re obviously awaiting the government’s response to designation or legislative change,” he said.

Mr Kendall said the decision to change the distribution of three papers in central NSW to Saturday were not issues in other markets it serves in at the moment.

“The communities of Blayney and Oberon will be served by the newsrooms in Bathurst and ­Orange, but the physical publications will be closing the same day as the last issue on August 23,” he said. “We are hopeful there will be a few redeployment opportunities, but there are probably less of those opportunities at the moment, given the broader reasons.”

ACM managing director Tony Kendall. Picture: Sitthixay Ditthavong

ACM will launch expanded, new-look weekend print editions on August 24 in Orange, Dubbo and Bathurst, with local news and sport, as well as regular lift-outs.

The impacted titles have seen 15 per cent annual growth in paid digital subscriptions over the past three years. The new publishing model will offer affected audiences new daily newsletters.

ACM said the change would allow the mastheads’ newsrooms and ACM to focus on delivering subscribers the best possible experience across the products and the platforms its communities are engaging with the most.

“This new model follows changing consumption habits among readers, plus unsustainable production costs in these markets and reduced support from government and Meta,” Mr Kendall said.

Media outlets have faced pressure in recent years by rising distribution costs and falling revenue from advertising in regional markets. News Corp Australia, the publisher of The Australian, shifted 76 local and regional news­papers to online during the pandemic in 2020, amid a change in consumer behaviour.

The Antony Catalano-backed ACM group has moved several papers to digital only, including the Bunbury Mail and the August-Margaret River, while it has closed other publications altogether in Queensland and South Australia in the past year. ACM in June made an offer to Southern Cross Media to purchase 14 newspapers and other assets.