ACM announce they have signed a letter of intent with Facebook

ACM has today announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Facebook. The LOI, subject to signing a long-form agreement between the two companies, is a multi year agreement to provide news and information to millions of Australians through Facebook News.

The agreement will see ACM bring content to Facebook from major regional, rural and suburban newsrooms across the nation. More than 40 ACM mastheads are named in the partnership, including Newcastle Herald, Canberra Times, Bendigo Advertiser, The Advocate, Katherine Times and Illawarra Mercury.

“We’re passionate about keeping our communities strong, informed and connected and this partnership will ensure our trusted regional and rural news will reach new audiences. The support also enables ACM to continue to build our digital platforms and grow our audience for our original news,” said Tony Kendall, ACM’s managing director

Andrew Hunter, news partnership lead, Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said: “This LOI solidifies our partnership and gives us access to premium local news to support our upcoming Facebook News product that we plan to bring to Australia . We are committed to help publishers reach news audiences and build sustainable business models. We are continuing to invest in programs to support journalism and our agreement with ACM continues our work with the news community in Australia.”

The news comes the day after Seven West Media confirmed it has finalised a long-form agreement with Google and has also signed a long-form agreement with Facebook awaiting signature by the latter.

Speaking about their deal, Seven West Media managing director and chief executive officer, James Warburton, said: “Completion of the two agreements confirms the strong recognition of the quality and credibility of our leading television and newspaper news brands and entertainment content. Together, they underpin our sustainability and enable us to continue to build our digital platform.