What Is the Community Newspaper Association of Victoria (CNAV)?

CNAV is the peak body representing not-for-profit community newspapers across Victoria, Australia. If you run, volunteer for, or are considering starting a community newspaper in Victoria, CNAV is the organisation that works with members to build their capacity and standing so they can fulfil their role in local communities. It is a state-level association rather than a regulator or a commercial publisher: its value lies in representation, shared resources, awards and conferences, and practical notices that keep members compliant.

What CNAV actually does

The Community Newspaper Association of Victoria (CNAV) represents community newspapers all over the state. Its stated purpose is to work actively with members to enhance the capacity and standing of community newspapers, enabling them to fully realise their vital role in communities.

In practice that means three things:

• Representation — speaking for the not-for-profit community newspaper sector, including at policy discussions. The CNAV President, for example, was invited to the News Futures: Media Policy Roundtable at the University of Canberra following participation in the Australian Local News Resilience Project in 2024.
• Member capability — conferences, awards and shared guidance that help small publications improve.
• Compliance and practical notices — reminders about legal obligations that apply to anyone publishing in Victoria.

Who it represents

CNAV's membership base is not-for-profit community newspapers across Victoria. That distinguishes it from commercial mastheads and from national industry bodies. If your publication is a volunteer-run local paper, a community newsletter, or a not-for-profit outlet serving a defined local area, that is the category CNAV exists to support.

The site's own keyword set — community newspapers, Victoria, community, publications, newsletters, local news — reflects that focus.

Conferences and awards

CNAV runs an annual conference with an awards program. The 2025 CNAV Conference award results show the range of publications involved and the categories judged. For example:

For a small newsroom, these awards are a low-cost way to benchmark work against peer publications and to give volunteers external recognition. Archived news items are also available on the site, which is useful for tracking how the sector's priorities have shifted over time.

Practical notices members need to follow

CNAV publishes notices covering obligations that apply to Victorian publishers. Two are worth knowing before you publish anything.

Legal deposit

If you publish a work in Victoria — meaning you make material available to the public for sale, to registered members, or free of charge — you are required to send one copy to the Library within 60 days of publication. This applies to community newspapers and newsletters, not just books. The notice is dated 10 Nov 2024.

Electoral advertising

All electoral advertisements — not only during election periods — at Federal, State and Local government levels must include the name and address of the person who authorised the advertisement. The address must be a full street address plus suburb or locality. This is a standing requirement, so it affects routine council and political advertising in your paper.

A third notice covers managing government advertising: the Victorian State Government appointed OmniMedia as its advertising agent, and OmniMedia has said it wants to work with community newspapers but has had difficulty managing timelines. If you rely on government advertising revenue, that relationship and its deadlines are worth tracking.

Useful external links

CNAV points members to:

• Our Community — described as Australia's Centre for Excellence for the nation's 600,000 not-for-profits and schools, providing advice, tools, resources and training: https://www.ourcommunity.com.au/
• The Citizen — an online publication of the Centre for Advancing Journalism.

How to get involved

Start with the CNAV website (cnav.org.au). Check the current notices for compliance deadlines that apply to you, look at the conference and awards information if you want to enter or attend, and use the contact route on the site to ask about membership eligibility for your publication. The site does not publish pricing or payment details, so confirm any costs directly with CNAV rather than assuming membership is free.