John Parker, the former West Wyalong journalist who went on to build what became Australia's biggest regional newspaper and radio business, has died, aged 91.
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The former managing director of Rural Press (now ACM), Mr Parker joined The Land as a junior reporter in 1964, rising to briefly become editor, then general manager in 1971.
He guided the modest farmers' journal through difficult financial times to its eventual expansion, buying the rival Country Life newspapers in NSW and Queensland, then regional and agricultural mastheads and printing sites in every state, and overseas.
The Land Newspaper Company, renamed Rural Press after the early 1980s purchase of mastheads at Bathurst, Armidale, Inverell and Glen Innes, eventually grew to more than 200 newspaper and magazine titles, regional radio interests and field days.
It also accumulated a portfolio of rural mastheads in New Zealand, and the Farm Progress stable in the US.
John Parker is also well remembered for driving the ambitious construction of the company's sprawling colonial style head office and adjoining print centre in the mid 1980s.
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It was sited prominently on a former North Richmond dairy farm in the Hawkesbury Valley, outside Sydney.
A similar styled head office building and print centre was built several years later for Queensland Country Life at Ormiston in Brisbane.
A widely respected and industrious businessman and boss, with an impressive capacity to charm and chide those he worked with, John Parker retired in 1994, spending part of his early retirement years on his Far South Coast farm and later in Sydney.
His media career had begun at the West Wyalong Advocate in Central West NSW, which was owned by his family, followed by a stint at the Illawarra Mercury before he twice applied to join The Land, and scored a job on his second attempt.
In 2007 the Rural Press business was absorbed into Fairfax Media after a merger deal which valued the two company's combined share capital at $6.7 billion - about a third of which was Rural Press assets.
The group's Australian media assets were later carved out as a stand alone entity, Australian Community Media (the owner of this masthead), after Nine Entertainment acquired Fairfax Media in 2018.
The Rural Press name continues in the background as part of ACM's business registration, with the former North Richmond headquarters still the company's registered office.
Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
