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Jacqueline Lynch, Sam Bold and Sam McManus

Media jobs on the line as ACM announces closure of four regional WA newspapers

ACM says the papers, including the Bunbury Mail, are not financially viable. (ABC South West: Kate Stephens)

Australian Community Media (ACM) has announced the closure of four major mastheads in Western Australia's South West, which is expected to lead to job losses.

In a letter to staff, ACM said it had made the "preliminary decision" to shut down the Mandurah Mail, the Augusta-Margaret River Mail, the Bunbury Mail and the Busselton-Dunsborough Mail.

It said publishing would cease at the end of April unless a buyer was found.

"ACM has had no choice but to consider options in the face of a number of challenges faced by the company and the media industry more broadly, which have been exacerbated by the 80 per cent increase to newsprint costs, which are well publicised," the letter said.

"We have identified several Western Australian mastheads that are not profitable from a revenue perspective."

The Augusta-Margaret River Mail is among a string of regional newspapers set to close at the end of April 2023. (ABC South West: Jacqueline Lynch)

The letter confirmed jobs were likely to be lost in regional towns.

"The proposal would result in ACM no longer requiring any jobs based at those mastheads to be completed by anyone," they said.

"The result of this is that, if we decide to proceed with the proposal and we are not able to redeploy you into another role, your employment would terminate by reason of redundancy."

Tiffany Venning says regional communities will suffer as a result of the closures. (ABC News: James Carmody)

'Really sad situation'

Media, Arts and Entertainment Alliance WA director Tiffany Venning said the decreasing amount of information available to people outside metropolitan areas was concerning.

"It is just a really sad situation for the communities that these papers cover," she said.

"It's one less voice — stories will go untold.

"They were already doing a lot with very little.

"My understanding is that there'll be one digital journalist to effectively cover that area now, and for one person to be able to [do that], it's near on impossible."

Ms Venning said it was a hard day for staff who whose jobs were on the line, but stressed they were already expected to do more with less.

"It is not an easy job, and traditionally [workers are] paid quite substantially less than journalists who might be working in a metro paper," she said.

"They're expected to be finding, writing, editing, taking the photos, and following up all the council meetings that occur after hours, and sporting events.

"I mean, it was already a really tough gig."

Printing facility to go

On Tuesday multiple newspapers in WA were told that a Mandurah printing facility run by media company IVE will be closed.

In a letter to customers the company said a recent decision by a key client to transition to a digital-only products had impacted the operation and the last day of operation was scheduled for May 19.

The facility prints thousands of copies ACM's closing papers, as well as the Toodyay Herald and Bridgetown Star newspapers, which now face an uncertain future.

Toodyay Herald secretary Andrew St John said the closure had come as a shock.

"It's a big surprise and a big potential blow to us, so we are meeting urgently to find out whether we can find an alternative press to print on," he said.

"[The paper] contributes to the community … it serves a very, very valuable role in the community, and we're keen to keep it going for that reason."

The Bunbury Mail was suspended at the height of the pandemic but started operating again in 2021. (ABC South West)

Second life cut short

In recent years, newspapers have struggled to remain viable while operating in a changing news environment and under new media ownership laws.

Dozens of regional Australian newspapers have folded since the COVID-19 pandemic began or switched to digital-only editions.

ACM suspended publication of some of its publications in 2020, including the Bunbury Mail, but revived some of them less than a year later.

The Bunbury Mail lasted two more years but is set to close on April 30, 2023.

In the South West, the closure of key publications has lead to hyperlocal news outlets popping up to fill the gap.

In 2020, Scott Morrison's government announced a $50-million dollar public interest news gathering fund.

It was designed to protect regional media jobs by supporting the "production and distribution of public interest journalism, such as staff wages, training and technology or website upgrades".

But Ms Venning said the money was not enough and was not properly distributed.

"The thing that was somewhat problematic around that funding – and it was only $50 million for the year – was that there didn't seem to be a lot of transparency and accountability that the money was actually being spent on journalists and journalism to continue to provide those communities with news and information about themselves," she said.

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