The company is overhauling its Australian Community Media (ACM) division to build a stronger, more sustainable and modern media network of newspapers and websites serving regional, rural and suburban Australia.

Staff across the region were briefed on Thursday about the proposed changes at 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.

Under the proposal, The Ridge News at Lightning Ridge will be sold or closed.

Other masthead changes proposed include 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.

The Western Magazine, which is inserted into 25 publications, will be revamped to better reflect the key rural issues and information relevant to its readership.

Fairfax has 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. ​

If the proposed restructure announced on Thursday goes ahead the company expects to call for voluntary redundancies of about 27 full-time equivalent positions from the western NSW operating group, the majority in editorial production roles such as sub-editing.

Consultation with employees is now under way.

Director of ACM John Angilley said no final decisions had been made about the western NSW operating group.

“Our full focus and attention in the weeks ahead is consulting with our staff to ensure everyone fully understands the proposal and has the opportunity to share their feedback with us,” he said.

Business manager of ACM’s western NSW operations Sally White will oversee the restructure, with group managing editor Tony Rhead and group sales manager Erin Peacock leading the editorial and sales teams, respectively.

Ms White said the company’s newspapers across the region were  “adapting and evolving in response to how our audiences are consuming news and information”.

“We are strengthening our business with new ways of working so that our journalists and sales teams can continue to serve their local communities,” she said.

Mr Angilley said the proposed changes were based on a detailed assessment of the needs of the business.

“Our mastheads must embrace truly transformational change and better focus resources to ensure they remain the most trusted source of news and information for years to come,” Mr Angilley said.

The proposal includes investing in a new digital-first publishing system, equipping journalists and sales teams with new technology and skills, introducing new ways of working, and refreshing and redesigning the company’s stable of newspapers.

“Our journalists and our sales teams will work with new skills, capabilities and resources so they can continue to do what they do best - create quality journalism and connect advertisers to our audiences,” Mr Angilley said.

“Our NewsNow editorial model involves journalists reporting local news across multi-media as well as being trained to write headlines and captions and take photographs.

“Quality-checking processes and procedures are built into the system and our editors remain responsible for maintaining editorial standards.”

Thursday’s announcement follows the introduction of new technology and new ways of working at ACM mastheads in the Illawarra, South Coast and south-west regions of NSW, regional Queensland and Victoria.

Fairfax’s ACM network includes hundreds of newspapers and websites serving regional, rural and suburban communities in every Australian state and territory.