Worth a lot less now thanks to his mismanagement.
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One wonders whether Catalano’s original plan to merge SCA with ACM was just a way of making both companies more attractive for Nine to acquire? Interesting that the above article lists The Newcastle Herald as part of the proposed sale given Nine already own NBN.
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This feels like the beginning of a move to really start to dismantle the empire - Covid allowed them to wind back some of the marginal mastheads, and selling what are arguably the three most valuable mastheads they have doesn’t bode well for the future of the rest.
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That the Graun and Media Watch are given different versions of events is a facinating detail.
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James Raptis has resigned as in-house counsel of ACM.
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The Guardian Australia’s Tory Shepherd wrote in the Weekly Beast column today that ACM would close the 3-year-old Lismore City News at the end of July.
The managing director of Australian Community Media, Tony Kendall, cited factors including rising costs, a lack of government support for regional newspapers, and Meta’s decision not to renew agreements to pay for news.
Kendall said closing the Lismore City News was hard.
“This is a very difficult decision to have to make given how proud we are of everyone’s efforts to make this publication work since its launch in November 2021, especially in the aftermath of the floods that devastated the region barely three months later.”
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From late August, the Central Western Daily in Orange, the Daily Liberal in Dubbo, and Bathurst’s Western Advocate will no longer offer print editions Monday through Friday.
Digital subscribers will receive more comprehensive daily local news, sport news, and breaking news alerts across the platforms on weekdays, while weekends will feature an expanded print edition to better serve the local communities.
The expanded weekend print edition will begin on August 24, while weekday print editions will cease on August 26.
UPDATE 19/7
The smaller weekly titles Oberon Review and Blayney Chronicle will cease publishing in print. The Mudgee Guardian will move its publication day from Friday to Saturday.
Consultation has commenced with affected ACM staff about the new leadership and team structures and roles. The company revealed redundancies can be expected in editorial and sales teams if redeployment opportunities cannot be identified.
Weekday print editions will continue at 11 ACM titles serving larger regional communities.
The Western Advocate’s origins in Bathurst, Australia’s oldest inland settlement, date back to 1848. The Daily Liberal began in Dubbo in 1874. The Central Western Daily has been serving Orange and surrounds since 1945.
The three newspapers are printed at Tamworth every night and then trucked into their respective markets.
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Closing another 8 papers in NSW next month
Social media giant Meta’s withdrawal of funding for Australian news providers and the disappearance of state and federal government advertising in regional newspapers have been cited as factors in media company ACM’s decision to stop publishing a number of community newspapers in NSW.
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.
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ACM cited the lack of NSW and federal government advertising for the closure of printed editions of around a dozen newspapers across the state. I don’t think the lack of government advertising is a recent trend, so when and why NSW and federal governments stopped placing ads in rural newspapers?
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Simply, it no longer reaches the numbers for the spend - they can reach more people via digital alternatives, the cost of TV and Radio advertising is such as well given the size of the buys that government agencies do that they can get a lot of coverage for a small investment.
Government advertising started to drop off before Covid - but Covid saw an uplift as they effectively ‘carpetbomed’ every media option for Covid-related messaging and then dropped off as the need for constant messaging ceased.
As an aside, the Daily Liberal going weekly is a massive fall from a paper that well into the 90s (before Rural Press bought it), was 7 days a week.
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Very sad for Daily Liberal & Dubbo.
As a child on holidays, I would ask newsagents in Dubbo why the paper was named as such and isn’t it confusing with a major political party? Especially when locals would mostly vote National out there?
Never received a good answer.
I hope the owners/descendants prior to Rural Press are around to see what’s happening with their once great asset.
No loss there.
The Tenterfield Star has been infuriating and disappointing locals since before ACM acquired. The lack of investment by Fairfax/RP had browned off so many. It’s a laughing point, source of derision.
Staff were told at a town hall meeting that six journalist positions at the Canberra Times, the Illawarra Mercury and the Newcastle Herald will be made redundant.
MEAA has criticised the latest job cuts at ACM.
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ACM has one print facility remaining – in Tamworth in north-central NSW. Kendall explained the Launceston facility was closed earlier this year, with the Tasmanian titles now printed by News Corp in Hobart.
The Tamworth plant not only prints for local requirements, but also for ACM titles as far away as Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo.
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From tonight’s Media Watch:
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