Joondalup and Wanneroo, which the North Coast Times covers, will still receive the Wanneroo Weekender, its weekend version. Existing mastheads will expand their footprint into some of the affected suburbs. The affected suburbs will also still get localised e-newsletters and a masthead-specific landing page on the Community News website. The company said in a statement the mastheads closing were in areas "where commercial performance means that publishing these printed publications is not sustainable". Chief executive Paul Eteen-Bliss said the five titles had done a great job of serving their communities for many years, but a decision had been made to focus investment on papers with "solid readership and strong advertising market share". WAtoday understands there will be voluntary redundancies from non-sales areas, with no set number in mind, as they expect to be able to move some reporters to other papers. Community Newspaper Group HQ in Perth.

The company statement said it would consult with staff affected "to work through the nature of the changes to their role and their options". A staffer who received the news on Thursday said it was shocking and devastating for all involved. "Not only for journalists, but for the communities we cover," they said. "Local newspapers are often overlooked, but they are so important to the communities they serve and journalism as a whole. It's a huge loss."

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance WA regional director Tiffany Venning said coverage of local issues, particularly local council-related matters, rarely got coverage in the state’s only daily metro newspaper, and this should be "of serious concern to readers seeking transparency of local government within these communities". "It is also a concern for younger journalists, as CNG has been a wonderful training ground. Many WA journalists got their start on the CNG papers, and have gone on to work in national and international newsrooms," she said. The MKR also once split its front pages in better resourced days. Credit:Kaitlyn Offer. Death by a thousand cuts? The company said in a statement that the changes were to ensure the long-term future of community news in Perth. Today's fragmented media market had resulted in more competition and economic pressure than ever before and Community News had to reshape its business to meet the needs of "audiences and commercial partners".

But there has already been radical 'reshaping' at CNG. The company had about 85-90 editorial staff — reporters, subeditors and photographers — in 2012, union records show. It now has closer to 50 after multiple restructures. The latest restructure in 2017 saw all physical branches close except Mandurah. Journalists were pulled from their offices in Kelmscott, Osborne Park, Nedlands, Midland, Joondalup, Myaree and Rockingham and sent to work in the Perth city office, further removing themselves from their local patches.

Independent newspapers The Midland Echo and the Examiner Newspaper Group still stand as the sole newspapers covering the hills, but will no longer be subjected to healthy competition. The Midland Echo's response seemed to stand alone on Thursday in its take on the development. Other responses from industry veterans were very different in their tone. Community to be left 'in the dark' Renowned WA newspaper publisher and journalist Bret Christian said it was a sad day.

Mr Christian, who publishes the independent Post Newspapers, said he felt for the hard-working journalists but the greatest loss would be to communities. People could be left in the dark without an adequate level of quality local media organisations watching the bureaucrats, he said. Newspaper closures were happening around the globe, and a recent international study had found that communities without a local media organisation watching what was going on in their patch meant there was no scrutiny of local government decisions, resulting in council spending increases. Loading The slow WA economy had not helped an already struggling media industry, with local advertising dollars diminished, he said. Curtin University journalism academic and media industry expert, Associate Professor Joseph Fernandez, said the closures were a huge blow.

Job losses were always unpleasant but when they happened in the journalism industry he was particularly concerned about the public impact. “The media plays a very important part in not only informing the public, they also play an important part in holding power to account in scrutinising the conduct of the government and public bodies," he said. “Not everything that happens in outer suburbs is of sufficient magnitude to interest the big players so once the community loses that ability to communicate with their governance structures then I think we are opening the doors to more problems. “You really need to keep a close watch on people performing public duties, the kind of monies that are spent and how they dislike and completely hate the media because they ask uncomfortable questions. This is good news for them.” Federal member for Burt Matt Keogh said the loss of the papers was an "absolute travesty" but placed some of the blame on the lack of local content that had followed the restructures.