News Corp Australia has merged at least 20 of its regional newspapers with their city mastheads.
Content for regional titles, such as Lismore’s 160-year-old the Northern Star, have been merged with the Daily Telegraph or the Courier-Mail, according to reports in the Guardian.
Other titles impacted include Noosa News and the Gympie Times in Queensland, and the Byron Shire News and the Tweed Daily News in NSW.
The move is part of News Corp’s plan to bring all regional titles under city mastheads online.
Subscribers of the local papers will still have access to their content, which sit under dedicated tabs on The Daily Telegraph or the Courier-Mail. They will also be given access to all of the city mastheads’ content with no increase to their subscription fee.
The absorption of the regional titles comes after News Corp Australia switched many of its regional newspapers to digital-only in May last year. Titles including the Northern Star, the Gympie Times, and the Byron Shire News went digital-only while others closed.
The move was part of News Corp’s strategy to become a digital-first publisher in the face of falling advertising revenue, particularly during the pandemic.
Last month, News Corp also rolled out new features that allowed readers to personalise their news. My News Feed gave readers the option to personalise their news by postcode and follow individual journalists, and topics.
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