Australian Community Media (ACM), publishers of the Bay Post and Narooma News, along with more than 330 newspapers this week are running full page advertisements to appeal to just one reader, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Image: ACM
The open letter is proposing a solution to what ACM describe as "the dire outlook" for local news and regional journalism.
What they want is this, a full page advertisement each and every week, to be published in local newsprint.
The Bay Post, Narooma News and The Independent are already slivers at 16 pages with a few cloned articles providing just enough padding between advertisements so as to still qualify as a news paper.
And now, with no commitment at all to improving their news quotient, they want to impose on their readers yet another full page advertisement to improve their profits.
Last week's Bay Post comprised the equivalent of six pages out of sixteen of advertisements. With the "content" now being offered the once proud local mastheads no longer serve the communities they claim to.
Unless there is a return to quality timely local journalism that does more than just provide padding to advertisements, and unless ACM moves away from cloned articles across its mastheads to provide the padding and fluff then their prediction of a "dire outlook" is certain.
No number of full page Federal Government or State Government advertisements will save them. What is missing from their regional newspapers is news.
What we have is ACM selling paper.
Image: ACM
If one reads the latest 2022 Annual Report and the more recent half year report of a major shareholder in ACM , the listed Thorney Opportunites , the future is bright for ACM. Sure they are selling off assets and speak of rationalisation , but they communicate in a positive manner to their shareholders about future profits. They have increased the carrying value of this asset in their books. Makes me wonder what the carry value of the pav is? Perhaps we will have one big write down, with a smaller remnant left to depreciate each year. No l am not an accountant ,and had better stop now.