Antony Catalano says he plans to "grow the business, not shrink it to greatness" after buying the regional publishing group which includes the Illawarra Mercury.
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The former chief executive of the Domain real estate platform and billionaire Alex Waislitz's Thorney Investment Group will pay Nine Entertainment Co $115 million for Australian Community Media's 160 regional newspapers and magazines.
Mr Catalano said after the deal was announced on Tuesday that he and Thorney would each take a half stake in ACM, whose name could change after the sale was finalised in June.
He said he would likely take on the role of executive chairman of the company, which was part of the Fairfax empire that merged with Nine late last year.
Mr Catalano identified seven of ACM's larger papers, including the Mercury, as key players in the firm and said the populations they served made them valuable assets.
"I've always been fascinated by the size of the audience of those publications," he said.
"There's obviously the Newcastle Herald, both the Canberra Times and the Illawarra Mercury, The Border Mail, and then some others in the group, the Examiner in Launceston, the Ballarat Courier, Bendigo Advertiser.
"They've all got very large populations in those areas. It's an opportunity to generate significant revenue. Media sells on audience. It sells papers and it sells advertising based on the audience size and the quality of those publications.
"I think we can beef that up and invest. I'm going to continue to do that pretty aggressively.
"From my perspective, there's certainly what I would call regional-city assets in there, and the rest of them are obviously very good hyper-local content players."
Mr Catalano told the Sydney Morning Herald last week that "some stuff" in ACM "doesn't make sense".
When asked again about the future of the dozens of smaller ACM papers across Australia, Mr Catalano said on Tuesday: "The question now is to look at all of the options open to us to make this a bigger and better business, and not a shrinking business.
"And that's in the context of a category that is facing structural headwinds. It has for many years."
Mr Catalano said ACM papers would continue to be printed under press-sharing deals struck last year between what was then Fairfax and publishing rival News Corp.
"We'll carry those through. That's an area that will continue to be reviewed and consolidated, but, obviously, if there are less publications, there's less need for print centres, so I think you'll continue to see some consolidation of print centres for them to remain viable."
Mr Catalano said larger ACM newspapers such as the Mercury and Times would continue to publish Domain magazines, locking in a key revenue stream for those businesses.
Nine owns 59 per cent of Domain, which was part of the Fairfax group before the merger.
The new owners paid Nine $115 million in cash and $10 million in advertising for ACM, beating out rival bids from equity firms Allegro Funds and Anchorage Capital Partners.
Mr Catalano, who worked for 26 years at Fairfax over two stints, said he had expressed an interest in buying ACM "immediately after" the Nine merger.
"I haven't invested in this business with a view to going in there and stripping it bare and closing it down. That's not the intent," he said. "The intent is to buy a business that I think has some value in it.
"What protects it against downside is the variety of income streams. There's currently printing, advertising revenue and circulation subscription revenue. Finding new ways of generating revenue are all the things we will look to explore.
"My experience in the past is to protect jobs. I've got a history of hiring, not firing. I want to grow the business, not shrink it to greatness. Not my style."
Asked about editorial independence, a key issue for journalists when Fairfax merged with Nine, Mr Catalano said: "There's simply no merit in content that doesn't resonate with the audience, and it doesn't resonate if it doesn't have authenticity and credibility."
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance welcomed Mr Catalano's comments about investing in the larger papers but was concerned this could come at the expense of smaller mastheads being closed.
"There are about 650 editorial staff employed across the country by the ACM group. It is essential the individual audiences for each masthead be respected," MEAA media director Katelin McInerney said.
She warned that Mr Catalano had been responsible for editorial cutbacks in previous publishing ventures.
"Genuine local reporting was gradually whittled away in favour of bland, vanilla news stories shared across several mastheads, regardless of what individual audiences wanted," she said.
"You can't do that with regional newspapers. The ACM mastheads are supported by fiercely loyal readers.
"The newspapers must continue to provide local news, information and entertainment to the communities they serve. Their readers are entitled to have local editorial content, not homogenised news generated from somewhere else."
She said the union was seeking a meeting with the new owners.
Mr Catalano has a colourful history with Fairfax.
He was property editor and marketing director at The Age but was made redundant in 2008. He then founded The Weekly Review, a free property magazine which started winning business from The Age.
He sold half the business to Fairfax for $35 million in 2011, became Domain chief executive in 2013 then left the company in early 2018.
He tried to scuttle the Fairfax merger late last year before emerging as the favourite to take over Nine's regional newspapers.
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Michael Parris
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
