ACM reportedly set to cut dozens of editorial jobs
Australian Community Media will be reportedly cutting 35 editorial positions.
According to Crikey’s Daany Saeed, ACM announced the cuts during a town hall meeting with staffers on Wednesday.
The community newspaper network will reportedly open up voluntary redundancies across The Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury, and The Canberra Times.
Managing director Tony Kendall confirmed the redundancies, saying they were due to the “loss of federal government advertising revenue and the loss of payments from Meta” and “reduced revenue from display and classifieds advertising and print circulation”.
This redundancies follow the announcement of a new publishing model for three of its regional mastheads – the Central Western Daily in Orange, the Daily Liberal in Dubbo, and Bathurst’s Western Advocate – which will no longer offer print editions Monday through Friday and will move its focus away from print editions to digital.
“ACM is evolving to be Australia’s leading regional and rural digital media company, and it’s important that we evolve our products to meet the modern reader’s preferences,” Kendall said of the changes.
“This new model follows changing consumption habits among readers, plus unsustainable production costs in these markets and reduced support from Government and Meta.”
The new publishing model is said to allow ACM and the three mastheads’ newsrooms to focus on delivering subscribers “the best possible experience”. It offers readers the choice to stay up-to-date however they want, whether that be digitally or via print.”
All redundancies will be finalised by the end of September. Mumbrella has reached out to ACM for comment.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Who even advertises in ACM?
Third tier rubbish.
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