PHOTO: A number of local independent newspapers from Forster to Quirindi are in a scramble to find alternative printing companies following the shut of Tamworth facilities.
ACM’s (Australian Community Media) decision to close its’ Tamworth printing facility has sent shockwaves through regional media, leaving up to ten small independent newspapers racing against time to secure alternative printing facilities.
The Tamworth printing site will close on 8 May, with ACM managing director Tony Kendall pointing to rising operational costs.
The Coonamble Times is among the 9 or 10 local independent newspapers, including Forster, Manilla/Barraba and Quirindi that are scrambling to find alternative printing options and the timing couldn’t be worse for the Coonabarabran Times, with change in ownership underway.
Around 11 of ACM’s own mastheads will be now printed in Sydney, moving to News Corp’s Chullora printery.
The News Corp site will now have what amounts to a statewide monopoly.
The closure is having a broader impact across the north-west, acting as a tipping point with one publisher already electing to close their publications.
Collective Media, owned by Susie and Mark Slack-Smith, has confirmed it will cease publication of its titles: The Courier which serves the Narrabri Shire, the Wee Waa News and The Gunnedah Times, along with the North West Magazine, from the same 8 May deadline.
The loss of these publications marks a significant shift in the state’s regional media coverage, raising concerns about the future of local news and the communities that rely on it.
In Narrabri, Mayor Darrell Tiemens said the closure of papers in his shire will have a negative effect on the social fabric of the community.
“It is important for communities to have the likes of The Courier and I firmly believe that we need more independent journalism rather than less of it, and I think we are all going to be poorer for the loss of local content.
“There is accountability with community newspapers and I think the Social Media companies need to be held to account, they are basically using content, driving opinion and are making all our communities poorer, and they need to start paying for what they are getting,” he said.
Similarly in Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson took to Facebook to voice his disappointment in the loss of The Northern Daily Leader which will go online-only partnered with a new-look Weekend Leader newspaper set to launch in the future.
He said The Leader had been a media mainstay in the region for 150 years, giving locals the news they needed and providing jobs for generations.
“This is a sad time and devastating for local workers including the printers who have lost their jobs due to ACM’s decision,” he said.
“Local stories are important, local news is important, I’ll keep supporting local papers across the region.”
Coonamble Times’ publisher Lee O’Connor says the print site closure is an ill-timed blow to the locally-based business, coming on top of the fuel crisis, rising wage costs and a drought-affected local economy.
“We are in the process of preparing to hand the district’s 140-year-old publication over to its next caretakers so there are already a lot of balls in the air,” she said.
“We are coming at this latest challenge as creatively as we can to find a quick and sustainable solution but nothing is certain.”
She says genuine local news in regional areas is the collateral damage as the big corporations manouevre to cut costs.
“If you have a look at the ACM Tamworth newspaper’s online version, it’s got stories about people in Melbourne and Mudgee – that is not local news, you can get that stuff anywhere.
“Real local news is vital – just ask any community where their newspaper has closed.
“It’s not just the eleven print staff in Tamworth, journalist jobs are also being cut in country areas.
“We are doing our best to keep the Coonamble Times going so we can properly serve our communities.
“We will need the support of everyone involved, especially readers and advertisers, to keep it publishing.”