Australian Community Media (ACM) has launched a national trade campaign in a bid to attract advertisers and agencies to its newspapers.
The ConnectNow campaign is the first major trade campaign from ACM since it moved to new ownership under executive chairman Antony Catalano.
The publisher has 142 mastheads and delivers 6.4 million print and digital audiences each month, according to emma figures.
The campaign will roll out across marketing trade press and ACM-owned assets throughout August and September. A national roadshow will follow.
“We’re not only raising the profile of ACM and our portfolio but also debunking a few misconceptions out there,” says ACM CMO Paul Tyrrell.
“The fact is, ACM’s reach is nationwide. We are strong in the regions where 9.1 million Australians now reside but many clients would not be aware that 48% of our audiences are from metropolitan areas. So with ACM it's easy and efficient to reach both a regional and a metro audience with a single buy.”
ACM says it has more than 35 dedicated content creators who help produce nearly 3,000 articles a month for clients.
“Unlike many other publishers we are looking to grow our portfolio not shrink it,” says ACM chief revenue officer Sharon Fitter.
“We’re two years on from the separation from Fairfax/Nine and we are now the largest independent publisher in the country and we want to celebrate the connections we make. We’re connecting readers to content, advertisers to audiences and we continue to add community support programs that aim to make the areas in which we operate better places to live.”
Fitter says regional areas have experienced “unprecedented growth” over the past 18 months as most Australians live and work in regional centres.
The marketing campaign comes more than a year after ACM halted the production of multiple publications during the pandemic as advertising revenue dried up. Titles including The Goulburn Post, Southern Highland News, The Area News, and Port Macquarie News were suspended in April last year but resumed in June.
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