Rural apparel retailer RB Sellars has launched The Burton, a media platform combining journalism, photography, film and social content focused on regional Australia.
The platform is anchored by a namesake newsprint publication, which launched with an initial run of 30,000 copies. It is being distributed through direct mail, RB Sellars’ 19 stores and a network of wholesale and industry partners across regional Australia.
The first print edition has been available since October 23 through RB Sellars stores, online orders and selected retail and industry partners. Stories are also published online at rbsellars.com.au/theburton and on dedicated social channels.
The Burton covers agriculture, regional business, history, craftsmanship, family and community, drawing on rural writers, photographers and filmmakers.
“AI is making content infinite. The scarce asset is an audience that actually cares, and at RB Sellars we’ve spent 30 years building one,” RB Sellars CEO Jim Gall said.
Gall said customers wanted to reconnect with the physical world through tangible content as well as stores, and that storytelling gave them a way to engage with the brand without simply being sold to.
He also contrasted the approach with other retailers’ moves into content.
“Rather than building an audience through entertainment, like many retail brands have started doing, we’ve built ours through stores, catalogues, customers and community,” Gall said.
“No one in Australia has a rural audience quite like ours – we’re not trying to build a community from nothing, we already have one.”
RB Sellars has appointed journalist and photographer Jessica Howard as editor. Howard grew up on a cattle property in Central Queensland and has spent more than two decades working across television, magazines and digital media, including in international newsrooms. She also founded an independent rural media business.
“Rural Australia is full of smart, resourceful people finding better ways to do things,” Howard said.
“We want to share those ideas, connect like-minded communities and inspire conversations that help rural Australia move forward.”
The platform takes its name from RB Sellars’ best-selling workshirt, which was named after Harry Burton, an agricultural science graduate and former jackaroo who became a cameraman and was killed covering the war in Afghanistan in 2001.