Printing staff will be slimmed at Seven West owned WA Newspapers, with around 40 redundancies to occur over the next two months.

A spokesperson from the AMWU confirmed the dismissals, saying, “It was announced to staff there.

“We also suspect the company is looking to close some regional mastheads, which could make for more redundancies in print.”

ProPrint has contacted WA News for comment.

The move comes as the Community Newspapers Group, a joint venture owned by WA News and News Corp, is ending five of its 17 local newspapers covering the state capital. The mastheads to be slashed from September 3 are The Comment News, The Advocate, Hills and Avon Valley Gazette, Midland-Kalamunda Reporter and the North Coast Times.

[Related: Fairfax and News to share printing]

Community News says all areas affected by the newspaper cuts will continue to have local coverage on its website and via social media. No further closures have been confirmed, with the group saying its other titles had been deemed sustainable as printed products. Its printing is outsourced to Seven West owned Colourpress in Osbourne Park, Perth.

Paul Eteen-Bliss, CEO of Community News says, “We will be consulting with all of our people, impacted by the closures, to work through the nature of the changes to their role and their options.”

“Community News will continue to regularly review all aspects of the business to ensure our continuing mastheads have an engaged audience and robust advertising revenue which will enable CNG to deliver a sustainable business model.”

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