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Andrew Packham calls himself a “second-generation paperboy”, which is a polite way of saying he knows a thing or two about the business of selling print media.

“My first home was a news agency,” he says. “My parents owned a news agency when I was born and in 2005 I bought one of their news agencies and I ended up with 4½ news agencies.”

But then came the decline in mass print media, and Packham found himself with assets that weren’t what they used to be. So his wife Ei Leen Kim gave him an ultimatum.

“We had a store in Darlington, which was a traditional news agency, and wasn’t doing very well. So my wife said close it down or turn it into somewhere she would like to shop.”

And so Journals was born. Journals might be described as a new-wave news agency, of sorts, a temple to printed products and arguably Sydney’s finest source of rare and exotic magazines sourced from around the world.

“We basically started with all white walls, then upgraded the level of magazines, started dealing with local and international publishers, and added fine stationery and journals.,” Packham says. “The basis of our business is paper. It is analogue. We have a love of the tactile and well designed and edited publications.”

The new Darlington business created an instant audience, especially, given its proximity to the University of Sydney, with university students. In 2019, a second journals was born, in Paddington.

“We have had a very positive reception; everybody has appreciated that we are still willing to stock fine publications,” Packham says. “You can’t replicate the pleasure of reading a magazine in a digital sense and what we offer is a unique curation of magazines and other products.”

Packham is a great gauge for the state of print media.

“The mass produced magazine has had its day,” he says. “Everybody is now looking for quality production, editors who know their stuff and who don’t strain to areas they are not experts in. Magazines are becoming more specialised, have much lower print runs but far higher quality, beautiful stock and creative presentation.

“Design has become really important. We are seeing young people studying design coming into the store to look at our magazines. They might see them online but it’s not like looking at them in the flesh. We have journalists and writers and photographers coming in too.”

Packham says he sources the publications from around the world and works with publishers directly, who are excited to find an outlet to sell their products.

“We get approached directly from a lot of publishers who see our social media,” he says. “There’s only about a dozen stores around the world who are really serious about being into magazines in particular. I would probably say in Sydney we have the broadest or the most interesting curation of magazines and we’re very proud of it.

“When publishers approach us we are always happy to take a look and they get really excited when we advertise that we stock their magazines.”

Packham feels confident there is still a market for print publications.

“Having been in the news agency industry I have seen it from when the Women’s Weekly was doing a million (copies) a month, so there has been that particular change,” he says. “But I’m very confident there will continue to be a place for fine print publications.”

Journals

Heeley St, Paddington

journals.net.au