Deputy Premier Paul Toole won't commit to weekly ads to support regional media

This week, the Northern Daily Leader joined with other ACM titles across NSW put two crucial questions on the front page, addressed to Premier Dominic Perrottet and Labor leader Chris Minns.

The questions were pretty straightforward. To help protect the future of local news across NSW, will you:

ACM put the same questions to Mr Toole, who is hoping to retain his position as the state's deputy premier when voters go to the polls on March 25.

While saying he wanted to see "a strong regional media", he didn't explicitly say he would commit to weekly advertising or reversing the regulatory change.

"The NSW Government recognises the importance of regional media in ensuring regional communities have access to trusted news sources covering the issues that matter to them," Mr Toole said.

"We want a strong regional media - and in line with this I recently announced a new $3 million Regional Media Fund.

"This fund will assist regional media outlets to drive innovation, tell stories in new ways and ensure that our communities have access to the news and information they need about the issues affecting them."

The Regional Media Fund is for specific projects and there is a long list of things money cannot be used for, including staff wages and other employee costs, and equipment or software purchases outside the designated project.

Higher prices for newsprint, rising costs of production and distribution and cut-throat competition for ad revenue from foreign-owned digital giants have pushed many long-standing papers to breaking point.

The NSW newspapers of the ACM network - Australia's largest publisher of regional news and the owner of this newspaper - are not asking for grants or handouts.

Instead, they are asking the next NSW government to show it cares about the future of regional newspapers and the communities they serve by committing to measures that get state government and local councils supporting trusted local news sources through advertising.

This is being done in Victoria, with weekly Victorian government advertisements running in newspapers since Premier Dan Andrew's re-election.

Those ads are, in turn, helping to pay the wages of the local journalists, photographers and editors asking questions on behalf of the voters, ratepayers and taxpayers of their town and region.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: