Australian Community Media (ACM) has confirmed the closure of four of its regional Western Australian newspaper mastheads, citing “increased newsprint costs” as one of the reasons.
The Mandurah Mail, Bunbury Mail, Busselton-Dunsborough Mail and Augusta-Margaret River Mail newspapers are the affected publications, and have all issued statements on their respective websites on why the publisher will cease printing in April.
They said ACM has briefed staff about the changes and has informed them about plans to retain journalists to continue to work on local news coverage via the Mandurah Mail and Bunbury Mail’s websites.
The publications added that “increased newsprint costs and a shift in advertiser spending” were the reasons for the decision to stop printing the newspapers.
“This decision has not been made lightly as these newspapers have been serving these communities in south west WA for many years,” ACM managing director Tony Kendall said in the reports.
“Unfortunately, the rising costs of newsprint and the shift of advertising spending to digital platforms has made these titles unprofitable.”
The last of the printed editions will be published in the week of 24 April.
An ABC report also indicated that a Mandurah printing facility run by IVE, which prints ACM’s closing newspapers, will soon be closed.
In May 2021, ACM’s executive chairman Antony Catalano mentioned that the company was moving towards digital and away from manufacturing.
That same month, ACM announced that it was turning off its presses at North Richmond at the end of June, leaving an association that represents regional newspapers in NSW “assessing options” about where it will send its publications to be printed.
IVE Group CEO Matt Aitken has been contacted for comment about the closure of the Mandurah printing facility, with more to follow on this story.
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