In recent days, Australian Community Media, ACM has given notice to the landlords of more than 30 small offices around the country that it intends to exit lease arrangements to reduce rental costs across the business.
The Harden Express vacated their Neill Street Office in 2012 nearly 8 years ago and joined the Cootamundra Herald site in Coota. However, it is now uncertain if they will even be a part of the Cootamundra Herald Office in Coota if it is found that Coota is one of the sites set to be closed. Today’s announcement by ACM will see the production of a number of non-daily newspapers suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic and employees associated with the print sites and products stood down until the end of June.
The Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald and The Border Mail, are part of ACM’s 14 daily newspapers not affected and will continue to be available, along with the weekly editions of the company’s agricultural rags, including The Land in NSW, Farm Weekly in Western Australia and Queensland Country Life.
In a message emailed to staff on Tuesday, ACM executive chairman Antony Catalano said the company had been “working tirelessly to try to maintain a full level of services and meet the needs of our team members, customers and the community”.
But the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the economy had “affected significantly” ACM’s revenue from advertising and external printing contracts.
The statement released this morning across a number of ACM websites stated, “For reasons beyond our control, we cannot sustain the same level of useful work or costs moving forward. Accordingly, we have no choice but to temporarily cease some of our publications and temporarily close our printing sites in Canberra, Murray Bridge, Wodonga and Tamworth from April 20 until June 29. Regrettably, this means that for some of our employees across the business there will be no useful work available, and they will be stood down from work in accordance with the provisions of the Fair Work Act.”
It went on to say, “Some other employees would be asked to reduce their hours ‘where there remains some limited useful work that can be performed’ while company executives had already agreed to voluntary pay cuts.”
Which non-daily titles will temporarily cease publishing and how many employees are affected has not been disclosed as managers begin to brief teams and consult with individuals.
In his note to staff, Mr Catalano said “At this stage it is not possible to say when we will be able to resume normal operations. We are closely monitoring developments and will keep employees updated as things change.”
While operations at ACM’s printing facilities at Canberra, Wodonga on the NSW-Victorian border, Tamworth in NSW and Murray Bridge in South Australia will be halted from Monday, continuing printing work – such as of daily newspapers – will be redirected to other press sites.
ACM said, “Limited news coverage will continue on websites of publications affected by the temporary shutdown.”
Already the sites within the local and regional area contain much of the same content which is aimed more at a national audience than local audience.
Large numbers of ACM staff have been working from home since early March as part of a company-wide response to official government directives on social distancing.
ACM’s 14 daily newspapers are The Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury, Northern Daily Leader, Central Western Daily, Western Advocate, Dubbo Daily Liberal, Wagga Daily Advertiser, The Border Mail, Bendigo Advertiser, The Courier, The Standard, The Examiner and The Advocate.
ACM’s state-based agricultural weeklies are The Land, Victoria’s Stock & Land, Queensland Country Life and the North Queensland Register, Western Australia’s Farm Weekly and South Australia’s Stock Journal.
The Twin Town Times intends to continue to print and will be printing over the next 2 weeks while many of the larger, local and regional papers have ceased printing.
