ACM’s Antony Catalano poised to buy News Corp’s regional papers
Australian Community Media (ACM) boss Antony Catalano is in talks with News Corp Australia to snap up the publisher’s portfolio of over 100 community and regional newspapers.
The deal, which Mumbrella understands has been underway for some time, could be signed off as soon as this week. It would grow ACM’s focus on regional titles and leave News Corp with a business of metro newspapers.
Catalano is interested in News Corp’s 100 regional titles
The Australian Financial Review is reporting the specific titles included in the deal are currently under discussion and could be a sticking point for the deal.
News Corp Australia’s regional titles focus largely on the Queensland market, while ACM’s stronghold is in New South Wales and Victoria. ACM’s titles include The Canberra Times, The Newcastle Herald, The Examiner and the Illawarra Mercury, while News Corp Australia’s titles range from the Geelong Advertiser, Gold Coast Bulletin, The Weekly Times and the NT News to the Wentworth Courier, Mosman Daily, North Shore Times and Manly Daily.
Discussions are currently around which of these titles would be involved in the deal. Some, including the NT News, are core parts of News Corp’s editorial strategy, while others, including the Wentworth Courier, have a strong relationship with News Corp’s REA Group. Catalano is the former CEO of Domain, REA Group’s rival.
In 2019, Catalano acquired ACM from Nine, formerly Fairfax, for $125m. He denied he was looking to recreate the success of Domain, telling Mumbrella his focus was on regional news, not replicating his real estate past.
News Corp’s regional titles were previously up for grabs, but the media giant removed them from the market following the merger of Nine and Fairfax.
Catalano has other regional investments, including a stake in Prime which he snapped up in a bid to stop Seven’s planned acquisition of the business. He has also continued to invest in real estate, joining the realestateview.com.au board with business partner Alex Waislitz.
Unless Anthony and Al\ex have some magic up their sleeves it is hard to see their almost-monopoly breathing life back into regional publishing except for the papers in the major population centres. It’s easy to see closures coming everywhere with the bigger regional dailies having bi- or tri-weekly inserts to appease readers of the defunct smaller papers. If Murdoch and Fairfax-Nine can’t make as meal of regional publishing what makes the two A’s think they can do it?
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Two smart blokes. Watch this space.
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Catalano just needing his media fix. Nothing will come of it.
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A profitable media business need not be the media that everyone consumes. Little pockets of gold in aggregate. IPO, I’ll be in.
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The journalists in local newspapers aren’t exactly Walkley winners. They would be on a pittance, and most outlets seem to have 1-2 journalists, plus an editor and a couple of sales and production staff.
Surely a digital-only outlet with free access for the public and cheap digital ad inventory for local businesses would make a killing. I know the NewsLocal paper in my area has thousands of locals complaining on social media that they can’t read the paywalled articles. At the end of the day I don’t know a single person who would pay to read local news, but make it free and make it affordable for almost any local business to advertise and you’ve got a viable business.
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I think it would be the paywalled local stories that would be driving subs for the News Corp mastheads. This is what drives me to take up occasional subs offers from the Telegraph at least on a one month basis
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I expect most Mumbrlla readers know making regional newspaper pay has eluded nearly all mainstream publishers world-wide … to date.
And most industry observers in this country will consider ACM’s latest play is simply crazy … but I’d say to the contrary … they’re being misunderstood.
IF (and it’s a big IF) ACM can introduce innovation into this space they are in fact sitting on a goldmine.
Having successfully sold print advertising for Fairfax in regional areas on a commission-only basis for over 12 years I am perhaps uniquely qualified to comment on this is topic.
Some suggestions worth their attention: Link up with real-estate websites (think Antony has this covered already), ditto car sales portals, explore new hybrid print-online products and establish online local search products (in direct opposition to Google). Also make alliances with other regional media (PRIME et al).
For the record my B2B marketing group prototyped many of these ideas for Fairfax … at least 15 years ago!
We ultimately joined the legendary list of missed start-up opportunities squandered by Fairfax – unfortunately Empower were just one of many.
Although I’m not a betting person myself I would wager Antony will become Australia’s next media baron and squillionaire … a big WINner … our next Bruce Gordon.
And as still the world’s richest person (post divorce) Jeff Bezos says: “I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to be innovative”. Say no more.
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You pay to read the Telegraph!?
Local News: Facebook. It’s all on social
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