For 32 years this newsagent has kept community informed
In a closely-choreographed feat of logistics, a national newspaper coordinated out of Sydney comes off the presses in Adelaide and is trucked three hours’ overnight to be on hand for this veteran newsagent by 4:30am.
For six days a week over the past 32 years in every kind of weather you could imagine,
he has delivered all the news and views published by The Australian to friends and neighbours in Jamestown.
John Batten is part of the vast, unsung network that gets our print editions to the doorstep of subscribers coast to coast.
In a closely choreographed feat of logistics, a national newspaper co-ordinated out
of Sydney comes off the presses in Adelaide and is trucked for three hours overnight to be
on hand for his arrival at
work at 4.30am – “not that early”, the veteran newsagent jokes.
There, Batten sorts out his daily delivery run and is on the road by first light in his well-travelled Toyota Yaris, the seventh “buzz box” he’s in the process of driving into the ground. “If the paper’s not over the fence before people are up, there’s trouble,” he says.
“And in a small place like this, everyone knows exactly where to find me.”
These days, The Australian and The Weekend Australian are flatpacked in sealed waterproof packets, not rolled, so it’s quite a skill to land the paper on target from a moving car. Fortunately, Batten, 65, has had plenty of time to hone his technique. “You’ve got to get them spinning,” he says. “When you get them spinning, they will fly forever.”
He’s proud to play his part in keeping the community of 1300 informed – especially when the five years that he and wife Linda initially intended to spend in Jamestown extended to three decades and counting.
“We came here with a six-year-old and a three-year-old and realised it was a great place to bring them up … we’ve now got grandchildren and some agricultural land,” he says. “You couldn’t ask for more.”
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