Fairfax Media's restructure plan for its publishing operations in western NSW has been modified after consultation with employees and feedback from local communities.
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It will now result in fewer job losses than originally proposed, the company has told staff.
Fairfax's suburban, regional and rural publishing business Australian Community Media (ACM) announced plans last month to revitalise its newspapers and websites with new digital-first publishing technology and new equipment and training for journalists and sales staff.
Staff in the state's west were briefed on Thursday on the final shape of ACM's operating structure in the region after a period of consultation with staff and the community.
The changes affect the Central Western Daily in Orange, Western Advocate in Bathurst, the Daily Liberal in Dubbo, Blayney Chronicle, Boorowa News, Canowindra News, Cowra Guardian, Forbes Advocate, Grenfell Record, Lithgow Mercury, Mailbox Shopper, Midstate Observer, Mudgee Guardian, Narromine News, Nyngan Observer, Oberon Review, Parkes Champion-Post, The Ridge News, Wellington Times, Western Magazine, Western Times and Young Witness.
Publishing changes include selling or closing The Ridge News at Lightning Ridge, taking the Cowra Guardian, Lithgow Mercury, Mudgee Guardian, Forbes Advocate, Parkes Champion-Post and Young Witness from three editions a week to two, and taking the Wellington Times and Narromine News to weekly editions.
Business manager of ACM's Western NSW operating group Sally White will oversee the restructure.
Led by group managing editor Tony Rhead and group sales manager Erin Peacock, the restructured editorial and sales teams will deliver new-look newspapers, more digital content and enhanced advertising solutions.
As a result of feedback, an extra 2.8 full-time equivalents have been added to the structure, bolstering sales, journalist and photographer numbers.
Resources have also been reallocated to create a new regional senior sports journalist role to drive sports coverage across the Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo region.
The company expects voluntary redundancies of about 25 full-time equivalent positions from its Western NSW operations. About 21 of these will be from editorial and are mostly production roles.
Fairfax has also previously outlined plans to relocate the editor of The Land and five journalists at the agricultural masthead to Orange from the publication's long-time base in north-west Sydney.
Director of ACM John Angilley thanked staff and community members for their constructive feedback.
"It is heartening to see that the communities we serve care as much as we do about our journalism, our local content and our trusted mastheads," Mr Angilley said.
"With the continued support of our audiences and advertisers, this plan for the future will help our newspapers and websites remain sustainable and vibrant local voices."
Staff have been briefed on a voluntary redundancy program, new roles created in the restructure and the implementation schedule for new technology and training.
Mr Angilley said the new digital-first publishing system to be rolled out at mastheads in Western NSW was already in use at more than 60 newspapers across the country.
"Our staff will adopt more efficient ways of working and new technology to improve how they provide news and information to their communities, with our journalists and photographers continuing to do what they do best - telling local stories," he said.
"This is a substantial upgrading for our newsrooms with new systems, digital-first editorial production and quality-checking processes plus a vastly better local sales approach."
The new technology and new ways of working have already been rolled at ACM mastheads in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Illawarra, South Coast and south-west regions of NSW.
The ACM network includes hundreds of newspapers and websites serving regional, rural and suburban communities in every Australian state and territory.
