Australian Community Media

Australian Community Media & Printing (ACM) is a trading name of Rural Press Limited, a media company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include The Canberra Times, The Newcastle Herald, The Examiner, The Border Mail, The Courier and the Illawarra Mercury along with more than one hundred community-based websites across Australia and numerous agricultural publications including The Land and Queensland Country Life.

Australian Community Media & Printing
IndustryMedia
Area served
Australia
Key people
Antony Catalano
Alex Waislitz
ProductsRegional newspapers
Websites
WebsiteWebsite

The entity was formerly owned by Fairfax Media prior to its merger with Nine in 2018. In 2019, Nine announced that former chief executive of real estate platform Domain Antony Catalano and billionaire Alex Waislitz's Thorney Investment Group had agreed to buy the group. Catalano and Thorney each own 50% of the business.

History
Main article: Rural Press

The entity that became ACM began its existence as The Land in 1911. In subsequent decades, The Land acquired various other community newspapers and the resulting media company was renamed Rural Press Limited in 1981.

By the mid-2000s, Rural Press owned approximately 170 newspaper and magazine titles, The Canberra Times being the most prominent. These were predominantly in rural Australia, though it also owned a number of agricultural publications in the United States and New Zealand. It also owned radio stations in regional South Australia and Queensland, a range of Australian classified advertising websites, and Australian commercial printing plants.

On 6 December 2006 it was announced that Rural Press Limited and John Fairfax Holdings would merge to form a new company estimated in value at $12 billion.[1] 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) would take 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 if Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, News Corporation, the Seven 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.[2]

The merger with Fairfax was completed on 8 May 2007.[3] 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 2018 and Nine sold ACM to Catalano and Thorney in 2019.

Newspapers

New South Wales

Other
ACT and Southern Inland NSW
Illawarra and South East NSW
New England
Newcastle and Hunter region
North Coast NSW
South West NSW
Sydney Suburban
Western NSW

Queensland and Northern Territory

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

ACM is represented in Victoria by "The Mighty V" and the Victorian Country Press Association (VCPA)

Western Australia

Rural Weeklies

Specialty Publications
  • Alfa Lotfeeding
  • Australian Cotton & Grains Outlook
  • Good Fruit & Vegetables
  • Horse Deals
  • The Australian Dairy Farmer

Targeted brands
  • The Senior
  • Focus
  • Rural Bookshop
  • The Content Studio
  • Chi Squared Research

Rural newspaper inserted publications
  • Country Leader
  • Hunter Valley and North Coast Town & Country
  • North West Magazine
  • The Rural
  • The Border News
  • Town and Country Magazine
  • Western Magazine

References
  1. Knight, Elizabeth: Stakes raised in media's cold war, The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 December 2006.
  2. Long, Stephen: Fairfax, Rural press announce plan for merger, ABC Radio National, 6 December 2006.
  3. Rural Press, Fairfax officially merged, The Age, 9 May 2007.
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