A number of regional Australian newspapers have been merged with News Corp Australia’s city mastheads.
While the exact number of titles that have been transferred to metro titles isn’t known, Guardian Australia has kept track of the subscription pages of regional newspapers across the country and found that at least 20 had been taken in by The Daily Telegraph or The Courier-Mail.
Regional newspapers owned by News Corp have already faced many cuts over the last 12 months.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, News Corp Australia suspended the printing of 60 community titles in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia. In April last year, the company announced that 112 local and regional newspapers would either become digital only platforms or be shut down completely.
In South Australia in particular, a number of Messenger titles were shut down and brought into The Advertiser.
Notably, the list of newly merged papers includes Lismore’s Northern Star, which has been operating in the New South Wales town for 160 years.
In an article published on The Daily Telegraph’s page – the website northernstar.com.au now redirects to the Sydney masthead – Northern Star editor David Kirkpatrick explains that:
“Bringing the Northern Star under the umbrella of The Daily Telegraph will provide you with a faster, cleaner, world-class news experience.
“The new site also offers our valued subscribers a far better app experience as well as new local daily newsletters, giving you the very best of our local coverage as well as stories you need to know from across New South Wales.”
In March of this year, News Corp announced the introduction of ‘hyperlocal news technology’, with News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller saying:
“We’re really combining old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground reporting with the very best technology we believe is available in today’s media market. These innovations deliver subscribers all the news they want, how they want and when they want seamlessly across all devices, whether it’s hyperlocal, state or international news.”
“We’re continuing to support local and regional journalism by enabling readers to get to those stories in a number of ways – through the strap on the homepage, through dedicated pages for each local and regional masthead, through the ability to follow these mastheads and to follow their favourite local and regional journalists.”