The recent ABC Gippsland coverage regarding the closure of the Sale Authorised Newsagency in Gippsland is a masterclass in reductive journalism. By framing a simple retirement as a herald of industry-wide collapse, the national broadcaster has once again prioritised a convenient “death of the high street” trope over a rigorous analysis of modern retail.

It is a significant editorial failure to present a business that has remained largely static for 38 years as the benchmark for an entire sector. In doing so, the ABC ignores the thousands of Australian newsagents who are currently navigating—and winning—in a rapidly shifting economy.

Retirement is Not a Market Trend

The “obituary” style of reporting used by the ABC misses the most basic fact of the story: Terry Stewart is retiring after a successful nearly four-decade career. He described the industry as having been “really good” to him. When a business owner closes their doors to enjoy the fruits of 38 years of labour, it is a personal success story, not a systemic failure.

To suggest otherwise is to “talk down” a channel that remains a vital pillar of local communities.

The “Tell” the ABC Ignored

The ABC’s report contained a glaring “tell” that any retail analyst would have spotted immediately: the observation that the products in the Sale shop had barely changed over the decades.

In the modern retail environment, stagnation is the outlier, not the rule. The data across the 1,800+ newsagencies served by Tower Systems tells a vastly different story:

• The 80/10 Rule: The most successful newsagents in Australia today report that roughly 80% of their current inventory consists of categories they didn’t even carry ten years ago.
• Active Diversification: Growth is not found in the “agent” model of old, but in the “retailer” model of today—moving into high-margin giftware, collectibles, and specialized stationery.
• Double-Digit Growth: While the ABC focuses on a single closure, they ignore the hundreds of newsagencies achieving record-breaking sales by pivoting their product mix to meet new consumer demands.

A Disservice to Innovation

By focusing on the static business model, the ABC provides a skewed and frankly lazy view of the industry’s health. They overlook the innovators, the risk-takers, and the small business owners who are currently revitalising their local high streets through clever data usage and aggressive diversification.

The newsagency channel is not disappearing; it is evolving. It is a shame the national broadcaster is so intent on looking backward that they have missed the transformation happening right in front of them. The newsagency of 2026 is here, it is profitable, and it looks nothing like the one the ABC prefers to profile.

Any journalist doing their job would soon discover the good news in the Australian newsagency channel.