Four of Australian Community Media's print sites will shut and many of its non-daily newspapers will be suspended as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hits home.

The company says printing facilities at Canberra, Wodonga (VIC), Tamworth (NSW) and Murray Bridge (SA) will stop from Monday, with their daily newspaper print workload and other continuing production switched to other sites.

Affected staff at the print sites and 170 non-daily papers - not yet disclosed as managers brief teams and consult with individuals - are being stood down until the end of June. "Limited news coverage" will continue on the websites of publications affected by the temporary shutdown.

Guardian Australia has reported that staff on the Wimmera Mail Times, Stawell Times and Ararat Advertiser were stood down without pay from Monday.

And in the mining city of Mount Isa, ACM's North West Star is to stop publishing its print edition until the end of June according to an announcement by the company yesterday.

The paper - bought by Fairfax from the family of founder Sir Asher Joel - is the city's only newspaper and was previously published three times a week. It will retain one journalist to update its website during the ten weeks.

Some at least of ACM's state-based agricultural weeklies will continue in print. The company publishes The Land, Victoria's Stock & Land, Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register, WA's Farm Weekly and South Australia's Stock Journal.

ACM executive chairman Antony Catalano told staff in an email the company had been "working tirelessly to try to maintain a full level of services and meet the needs of our team members, customers and the community".

With the pandemic impacting revenue from advertising and external printing, and the "level of useful work", some employees would be stood down in accordance with the provisions of the Fair Work Act. Some other employees would be asked to reduce their hours while company executives had already agreed to pay cuts.

The company plans to register for the government's JobKeeper payment when eligible.

Catalano said he was aware that this was a very challenging time, impacting every person across the business: "At this stage it is not possible to say when we will be able to resume normal operations."

Many ACM staff - who have been working from home since early March - are unlikely to return to their normal workplace, as ACM has recently given notice to the landlords of more than 30 small offices around the country that it intends to exit lease arrangements to reduce rental costs across the business.

ACM's 14 daily newspapers are the Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald, (Wollongong) Illawarra Mercury, (Tamworth) Northern Daily Leader, Central Western Daily, Western Advocate, Dubbo Daily Liberal, Wagga Daily Advertiser, (Albury-Wodonga) Border Mail, Bendigo Advertiser, (Ballarat) Courier, (Warrnambool) Standard, (Launceston) Examiner and (Burnie) Advocate.

ACM's bigger print sites include North Richmond (NSW), Ballarat (VIC) and Mandurah (WA).

Former Fairfax print sites in Beresfield (NSW) and Ormiston (QLD) were closed as part of a deal under which News Corp Australia took on printing of its daily papers ahead of the sale to Nine Entertainment.

• A lifeline has apparently been offered to the Barrier Daily Truth in Broken Hill, NSW, with a former mining executive to support the union-owned paper. The ABC has reported that former resident and director of exploration company Toll Resources Robert Williamson got in touch after reading of the paper's shutdown.

"I read the BDT when I was growing up in Broken Hill," he said.

"When I heard that it had stopped printing I called the management guys there and said 'Well listen, do you want a hand? Let's see if we can't put a bit of a business plan together'."

Pictured: ACM's Capital Fine Print site in Fyshwick (ACT) is one of four heatset-capable plants within the group (photo Google)