ACM managing director, Tony Kendall, today announced a new publishing model for three of the company’s mastheads in Central West NSW that will see a dedicated digital publishing focus on weekdays and expanded weekend print editions to serve local communities better.
From Monday 26 August, the Central Western Daily in Orange, the Daily Liberal in Dubbo and the Western Advocate in Bathurst will no longer offer print editions Monday to Friday. Digital subscribers will continue to receive the most comprehensive, daily local news and sport and breaking news alerts across platforms.
ACM will launch expanded, new-look weekend print editions on Saturday 24 August for the three mastheads with all the local news, sport and columnists readers expect, along with the popular liftouts and sections including Explore travel, View real estate, the racing form and weekly TV Guide.
The new publishing model offers readers the choice to stay up to date with the latest news and issues affecting these growing regional centres the way that suits them: morning briefing in the daily newsletter, catching up through the day via app or web, or sitting down to read the weekend paper. It allows the mastheads’ newsrooms and ACM to focus on delivering subscribers the best possible experience across the products and the platforms its communities are engaging with the most.
Since launching digital subscriptions in 2018 the titles have had strong support and engagement in these markets – they have seen 15% annual growth in paid digital subscriptions over the last three years.
“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. This new model follows changing consumption habits among readers, plus unsustainable production costs in these markets and reduced support from Government and Meta,” Kendall said.
“In recent years, ACM’s Central Western NSW communities have embraced our digital subscription offering and this new model allows them to have the best of both worlds – with digital access on the go and a bumper weekend print edition”.
“The Western Advocate, Central Western Daily and Daily Liberal have proud histories of serving the cities of Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo with quality, independent journalism and that will absolutely continue as we focus on the products that meet our readers’ changing consumption habits and continue to have a sustainable model for local journalism”.
“With our mobile apps and websites, daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, and the new look, expanded weekend papers, we’ll continue keeping our readers informed and up-to-date and providing commercial customers the very best environments to connect with our engaged regional audiences”.
