‘I'm predicting a resurgence’: south west Queensland’s last newspaperman sees opportunity in News Corp closures

Here at Orange City life we believe that local independent media is best placed to serve the interests of regional Australia. As you may have read, more than 100 of News Corp’s community mastheads will cease printing at the end of the month, but in Outback Queensland the Warrego Watchman’s James Clark sees the demise of company-run newspapers as an opportunity for a resurgence of local media that really cares about the communities they serve.

“I'm looking like the Stephen Bradbury of newspapers. I'm the last one standing,” laughs James, who can now claim to have the last remaining printed newspaper in the entire southwest of Queensland.

The Warrego Watchman, based in Cunnamulla, will soon be one of just two newspapers being printed west of Toowoomba, and the only Queensland paper for more than 600 kilometres.

“All the way out to Chinchilla and Roma, they've stopped the lot. I did a little jig when they announced it!”

James purchased the Warrego Watchman 11 years ago from second-generation newspaperman and former mayor of the Paroo Shire, Ian Tonkin.

“He was rolled in the election, he wanted to get out of town, so he put his newspaper up for sale and like an idiot I bought it!” said James, an experienced journalist, who had initially returned to Cunnamulla to take on the family sheep station.

“My brother wanted to leave and I’d had a gutful of big cities. I worked out I had about 12 or 13 years, I reckon, just in big cities — London, Sydney, Hong Kong and then five years in Paris — and I was sick of it.”

In between battling a temperamental printing press, James expanded the coverage of the Watchman to the surrounding three shires, an area of 300,000 square kilometres, even opening up an office in the neighbouring town of Charleville to go head to head with The Western Times.

Despite having what James considered a superior product, he found it hard to pick up sales in Charleville, where people still thought of the Watchman as ‘the Cunnamulla paper.’

“The Watchman has definitely been the better read but people tended to pick it up out of habit,” he said.

“The Western Times hadn’t had anyone there for three years, they just ran it from Roma. And before they always just had a kid there, straight out of uni, no idea, not terribly interested and it showed.

“Now that they are gone, the road is wide open and next month people are going to be wandering in looking for something to read and the only thing to read will be the Watchman, the Cunnamulla paper, so I'm looking to double the sales!”

And that’s not all James has in mind: Roma and St George to the east will soon be without a printed newspaper and he has his sights set on being there to fill the gap.

“Roma, that's quite a big area. In the four core shires that I cover I've only got 6,000 people scattered through that and they've got 10,000 just in that Maranoa Shire and I would have thought you could sustain a weekly newspaper there. So I'm lining up Roma, I'm lining up St George, and probably Blackhall and Tambo,” said James.

“I can see a total takeover of southeast Queensland from Roma and St George west!”

But, if these mastheads are ceasing printing due to financial reasons, why does James believe he can make them a success?

“Because we are interested, and they are not… I don't think they realise, at least out here, print has got a lot of legs in it left. People tell me over and over and over again that they still like to get the print paper and I'm predicting a resurgence!

“I think this bail-out by the big boys leaves it wide open for people to assume local control of their newspapers again. And if there's someone interested and invested, and determined to make a good product, it should do better.”

Not that James is saying you will make your fortune in a small-town newspaper, but that has never been his aim.

“This is a paper that has never been about money, up-selling people or trying to squeeze ads out of people, it is mostly about trying to keep the stories going, because I like doing the stories and I think they are worth printing and people seem to appreciate it.

“I've got this little plane I get around in and you go up 5000 feet and think, how good is this! I'm doing journalism in the far reaches of the channel country, it doesn’t get any better!

“But I could use a hand. I’ve been writing the whole thing myself for the last two months, every word.  If you are up for an adventure, this is the best little newspaper you'll ever work for. It is an iconic part of the world and you'll do stories here as good or better than any you'll do anywhere else!