Managers’ ability to effectively and efficiently obtain, manage and utilise organisational resources plays an important role in the quality of the product their organisations present audiences with. A literature review reveals that a lack of effective and efficient media management is a core variable that influences the quality of journalism worldwide. This paper proposes that traditional commercial community newspaper organisations can proactively manage quality by comprehensively following a systems- and process-based approach. For this purpose and using a case study design, a comprehensive quality management model was developed for community newspapers, particularly in developing and rural settings. This context-sensitive model could be a useful tool for owners, managers and editors at community newspapers in developing countries to manage and improve quality in and across all functions and production processes in their organisations.