NEWSPOWER
GO!
TRARALGON keeps powering on Words and Photos by Anita Butterworth It’s a rare newsagency that manages to successfully combine the traditional role of supplying the community with printed news while becoming a hub for breadmaking supplies and confectionary. But NewspowerGO Traralgon has managed to strike a clever balance of the classic and contemporary. At the helm of the Traralgon institution is Darren Howe, who admits he never intended to own the business for as long as he has. “I wasn’t planning to be here for 26 years, I was planning on being here for 10 years but sometimes getting into a business is easier than getting out of a business,” Darren laughs. Having worked at McDonalds straight out of school, and eventually progressing to shift manager, Darren got his first taste of running a business. His other roles during his early career with the State Electricity Commission and Bendigo Bank also put him in good stead to take on the challenges of owning a newsagency. “It’s a real balance between work, family and personal time. During the early years you are having to work a lot of hours to get the business off the ground, and then you need to try and fit in everything and balance family’s needs, you want to spend time with them.”
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But as Darren explains, just purchasing a newsagency was a hill to climb back in the 1990s. “It was a premium business and a much sort after business, there was a Newsagency Council that approved the sale of every newsagent. The person selling the newsagency didn’t have choice who they were going to sell it to, they just put it on the market. The purchaser needed to meet criteria set down by the Newsagency Council, the prospective buyers were interviewed by the Newsagency Council, which comprised of representatives from the magazine companies, the newspaper companies, VANA and other industry partners. They chose the person who they thought was going to keep the newsagency channel as strong and vibrant as possible.” Darren and his family were given the seal of approval, and in 1996 took over the Seymour Street Newsagency in its former, location in Franklin Street, Traralgon. Business was strong, initially distributing papers to half of the local Traralgon community. Then, about 20 years ago, the family made the decision to buy the distribution for the entire town of Traralgon and surrounds and to manage the additional business moved into a larger premises in Seymour Street. “We had the territory for all the home deliveries of newspapers and magazines. We also supplied other resellers such as Supermarkets, Service Stations and Convenience Stores and were committed to doing the right thing by the community and deliver the best service we could.”
