The ABC has this story:

News Corp confirms newspaper distribution will cease to much of outback Queensland

For some regional Queenslanders heading to buy a News Corp Australia paper from their local newsagent this weekend, the purchase will be one of their last.

News Corp has confirmed it will stop delivering its titles to certain parts of regional Queensland after September 26 and following more than three months of lobbying from concerned newsagents.

News Corp wrote to select newsagents in March informing them it planned to cease physically distributing eight mastheads including The Courier-Mail, The Australian, and The Daily Telegraph, due to the “very high cost” of distribution.

Longreach newsagent Rob Luck said he offered a range of solutions to the media company to try to reverse the decision.

However, on Thursday afternoon he received an email from News Corp confirming it would go ahead with its plan of ceasing distribution after September 26.

Towns further west than Charters Towers in the north, Emerald in central Queensland, and in some parts of the state’s south-west will be affected.

Distribution will cease in the regional centres of Longreach and Mount Isa.

Charleville in the state’s south-west will remain unaffected, after News Corp organised a cheaper, alternative freight arrangement.

Residents in impacted towns will no longer have access to a physical daily newspaper covering state, national, and international affairs.

Consultation just for show, says newsagent

In June, News Corp’s managing director for Queensland and News Regional Media, Jason Scott, visited Longreach to meet with concerned newsagents.

Mr Luck, who has owned one of Longreach’s two newsagencies for 26 years, said he was told “the door is ajar” but was sceptical there was any intent to reverse the decision.

“It took from March to mid-June for someone to come and I will, in inverted commas, use the word ‘consult’ with us,” Mr Luck said.

Read the whole story published by the ABC  as it provides details of offers of help from newsagents.

News Corp’s decision is all about money, as its shareholders would want.

Why politicians pander to News Corp. is beyond me. In my opinion, the company is a bully, using its media pulpit to tell us what to think and our state and federal governments what to do. I’d go further and say that some days in their papers it reads to me like political interference. Thankfully I don’t watch the trash on Sky News.

Here News Corp. is just after receiving additional government funding, turning their back on outback Australians.

Given the continued slide in over the counter sales and the decline in real terms of margin, maybe it is time to stop stocking News Corp titles. I am sure Harvey Norman would put the catalogues in their locations.