 | |
| Formerly | Rural Press |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media |
| Headquarters | , Australia |
Area served | Regional Australia |
| Products | Regional newspapers Websites |
| Owner |
|
| Website | acm |
Australian Community Media (ACM) is amedia company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include theCanberra Times,Newcastle Herald,The Examiner,The Border Mail,The Courier and theIllawarra Mercury along with more than one hundred community-based websites across Australia and numerous agricultural publications includingThe Land andQueensland Country Life.
The entity was formerly owned byFairfax Media prior to its merger withNine Entertainment in 2018. In April 2019, Nine sold the business to former chief executive ofreal estate platform Domain Antony Catalano and billionaireAlex Waislitz.
In May 2024, one of the lawyers employed by ACM became associated with a plagiarism scandal involving the use of AI.[1] It was discovered that articles from other publications had been rewritten, but not attributed to the original journalists.
ACM's origins can be traced back toThe Land, founded in Sydney in 1911. In subsequent decades,The Land acquired various other community newspapers. In September 1970,John Fairfax acquired a 25% shareholding.[2] In 1981, the company was renamed Rural Press.[citation needed] In 1985, John Fairfax increased its shareholding from 25% to 45%.[3] In March 1989, Rural Press was listed on theAustralian Securities Exchange with Fairfax Holdings having a 51% shareholding.[4]
By the mid-2000s, Rural Press owned approximately 170 newspaper and magazine titles, theCanberra Times being the most prominent. These were predominantly in rural Australia, though it also owned a number of agricultural publications in theUnited States andNew Zealand. It also owned radio stations in regionalQueensland,South Australia andWestern Australia, a range of Australianclassified advertising websites, and Australian commercial printing plants.[5][6]
On 6 December 2006, it was announced that Rural Press and John Fairfax would merge to form a new company estimated in value at $12 billion.[7][failed verification] Under the deal, the family company of Rural Press chairman John B. Fairfax (who did not have an interest in the company bearing his family's name) took a 13.5 per cent stake in the merged entity. This was just short of a controlling interest, but gave Fairfax a potential blocking stake ifPublishing & Broadcasting Limited,News Corporation, theSeven Network or a private equity raider embarked on a hostile takeover, as had been widely anticipated following the Federal Parliament's passage of new media laws on October 18, 2006.[8]
The merger with Fairfax was completed on 8 May 2007.[9] Papers from Rural Press were published under the Fairfax Regional Media brand, which later became Australian Community Media. Fairfax Media merged with Nine Entertainment in December 2018 and Nine sold ACM to Antony Catalano andAlex Waislitz in April 2019.[10][11][12]
In December 2022, management of 14 newspapers in Queensland and South Australia was taken over byStar News Group.[13] ACM closed theBlayney Chronicle andOberon Review in August 2024[14] and then a month later announced plans to close another eight papers. The company blamed the closures onMeta Platforms not renewing its $200 million three-year deal with local newspaper publishers.[15] In February 2025, ACM announced that all of its mastheads would move to one printed edition per week by 2032.[16]
ACM is represented in Victoria by "The Mighty V" and the Victorian Country Press Association (VCPA)