Catalano and Waislitz’s newspaper arm to sell, shut down 13 titles

Antony Catalano and Alex Waislitz’s newspaper business is preparing to sell or shut down more than 13 mastheads as the company combats rising print costs and a slump in the advertising market.

Australian Community Media, the publisher of titles such as The Canberra Times, The Newcastle Herald and The Land, is asking staff to take their annual leave over Easter, a move which will reduce costs but also leave a skeleton staff for the days after the break.

In an email sent to staff on Monday, seen by this masthead, ACM managing director Tony Kendall told staff the business was in the process of selling seven titles in the NSW central-west and south-west regions after receiving an approach by Provincial Press Group.

Titles in this area include the Forbes Advocate, Parkes Champion-Post, The Grenfell Record, Cowra Guardian, Boorowa News, Canowindra News and The Young Witness. The agreement has been signed and transition should be by the end of the month. This would add to titles in South Australia and Queensland which were sold to regional newspaper company The Star Group last Saturday.

Kendall also told staff he planned to shut down Queensland community titles the Jimboomba Times and Redlands City Bulletin and four Western Australian titles including the Bunbury Mail, the Mandurah Mail and the August-Margaret River Mail. The Queensland titles have already shut and are closing for good while the Western Australian titles are going to digital-only by the end of the month.

The closures will be completed by April 30 and are indicative of the ongoing pressure regional media companies face in generating cash from advertisers and subscribers. This is not the first time ACM has closed newspapers. In 2020, following a temporary suspension of print publications, Catalano permanently closed a number of regional titles.

Kendall told staff the company was narrowing its focus to more profitable titles to ensure the continued growth of the business. “While it may seem from these changes that ACM is in decline, let me be clear that this is not the case,” he said.

Catalano told this masthead the core of the business was strong.

“We continue to invest,” he said. “Regrettably some smaller publications were at best break even before we bought the business, and the reality of an 80 per cent increase in paper costs and a significant drop in government spend made them completely unsustainable in print form.”