Regional publisher Australian Community Media (ACM) is reportedly cutting 35 jobs from its newsrooms.
Eight regional newspapers owned by Australian Community Media will stop printing and three mastheads have moved to a single weekly print edition.
The company has opened applications for voluntary redundancies at the daily titles Canberra Times, Illawarra Mercury and Newcastle Herald.
“Staff were told at a town hall meeting that multiple positions at the Canberra Times, the Illawarra Mercury and the Newcastle Herald will be made redundant as well as the company's Tasmanian papers,” reported the ABC
The company told staff the job cuts were a result of funding lost when social media group Meta didn’t renew payment for using news under the News Media Bargaining Code.
"Every title in the ACM portfolio has been affected by Meta's decision to withdraw its funding for the trusted local news that Australian social media users rightly expect to see in their feeds," said ACM managing director Tony Kendall.
"Our newspapers also face reduced revenue from display advertising, including from state and federal governments, classifieds and print circulation. Against this, inflation is driving significant cost increases across the board. Production and distribution costs are particularly challenging.
"Without governments restoring a fair share of their advertising budgets to regional newspapers - the elegant solution our industry has been calling for - we must make prudent decisions that support the continued sustainability of our local journalism and the digital future of our business.”
The union representing journalists, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), said regional newspapers play a critical role in ensuring communities are informed and in holding powerful figures and organisations to account.
The union named titles affected as The Moree Champion, Tenterfield Star, The Inverell Times, Glenn Innes Examiner, Country Leader, Dungog Chronicle, Gloucester Advocate, Milton-Ulladulla Times, The Central Western Daily, The Daily Liberal and Western Advocate.
"ACM has blamed the impact of Meta’s withdrawal of funding under the News Media Bargaining Code and the rising newsprint costs as reasons for the cutbacks," the union said.
The MEAA said the two biggest owners of regional media outlets (News Corp and Australian Community Media) have ceased printing and/or closed more than 20 regional and community newspapers over the past 18 months.
"This is on top of more than 200 regional and community newspapers ceasing printing or closing completely over the past decade or so," the union said.
"The crisis in regional media is in part due to relaxation of media ownership laws that have allowed big corporations to buy up local mastheads, exploit journalists, sell assets, cut jobs and close papers. It is the local communities who lose out."
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