A number of local newspapers in the Western Plains district have received a much needed injection of funds from the government, but many say it still does little to offset the growing pressures on regional newspapers.

A share of $15 million will be distributed to a total of 208 applicants across Australia from the federal government's Regional and Local Newspaper Publishers Program.

In New South Wales a total of 69 grants were awarded across four streams - regional, independent suburban, First Nations and multicultural print publishers.

In the Parkes electorate, eight publications shared just $179,564 to help absorb newsprint price increases which threaten the sustainability of newspaper businesses and journalism jobs throughout Australia.

Successful papers within the Parkes Electorate were:

• The Western Herald
• The North Western Courier
• Gilgandra Newspapers
• Coonabarabran Times
• The Cobar Weekly
• Coonamble Times
• The Condobolin Argus
• Barrier Truth

Duty Senator for the Parkes Electorate, Deborah O'Neill, said "local papers like the eight successful applicants keep locals informed, entertained and connected. I’m so pleased to see this important funding out the door so quickly."

Editor of the Gilgandra Weekly, Lucie Peart explained that the grant was a one-off payment designed to offset the mammoth rise in printing costs brought about by a tightening of news print supply and increasing freight costs.

"During COVID a number of paper mills closed down which exacerbated supply at our end, and a lot of other printers are now producing things like cardboard and packaging because there's more money in it," she explained.

"So, it's become harder to actually get news print because less people are producing it," she said.

To add to the frustration, freight prices have been soaring over the past 12 months and a further rises are expected.

This print site in Marrickville in Sydney prints several of the newspapers on the Western Plains and both the printers and the publications are bracing for further rises in the cost of paper.

"We were quoted to pick our newsprint up from Sydney recently and the company that usually handled the freight quoted our paper stockist $495 per pallet and we get 5 pallets," said Lucie.

"That's ridiculous. It's just putting extreme pressure on everyone at the moment," she said.

While this grant provides much needed help for struggling newspapers, Ms Peart is concerned that it will not be enough to offset the rising production costs.

"Many publishers have been experiencing 70-80% production price rises," she said.

"Our printing costs are around $70,000 now and we only received about $7,000 from the government grant," said Lucie.

"The grant is massively important and we are very grateful, but it is not the big lifeline that they are claiming it is," she said.

Anne Coffey, Editor of The Condobolin Argus reported a similar story.

"We applied for $32,880.00 and received just $9,735.00," she said.

"While it's a bit better than a poke in the eye it still falls well short of the cost of printing."

"The amount is disappointing but we are still very grateful for the help we received," she said.