Australian Community Media (ACM) has announced the establishment of a new division, the Commercial Strategy Centre of Excellence. This initiative aims to enhance commercial strategy and operations, with a focus on fostering business growth in regional Australia.

The newly formed division will be under the supervision of ACM's Chief Marketing Officer, Jarrah Petzold. Maree Neale has been appointed as the Director of Commercial Strategy to lead the division. Neale brings over 20 years of experience in commercial leadership and has been with ACM for nearly a decade. She said, "As a country girl at heart, with deep roots in regional Australia, I’m passionate about community connection and regional media. The Commercial Strategy Centre of Excellence will allow ACM to leverage its collective expertise across the whole portfolio. I’m proud to be working with some of the brightest minds in media sales and strategy to help grow our partners’ businesses in regional Australia."

Lisa Levesque has been appointed as Deputy Director of Commercial Strategy. Levesque has over 20 years of experience in media, publishing, and advertising, and joined ACM in 2020. Lupe Prada has been promoted to Marketing and Commercial Strategy Director for ACM Agri. Prada has over 20 years of experience in media strategy and business growth, having joined ACM in 2023.

Additionally, Chris Clarke has been appointed as Director of Business Intelligence. Clarke has been with ACM for nearly a decade, focusing on sales and business improvement. These appointments are effective immediately.

The establishment of the Commercial Strategy Centre of Excellence is aligned with ACM's ongoing efforts to support regional audiences and advertisers. ACM is recognised as Australia's largest independent publisher, reaching 2.3 million people in print and over 3.3 million online each month.

Petzold commented on the new division, "Establishing this new team reflects ACM’s commitment to driving growth and transformation of our business. I’m looking forward to working with Maree, Lisa, Lupe, Chris and the broader team, and I have every confidence that this will see us continue to deliver market leading opportunities to connect businesses with regional audiences in 2025."