Mr Binney sitting behind his newspapers while some of his clients glance through the newspapers

The only ‘Sir’ in newspaper selling ; James Binney

Zadok Kwame Gyesi Dec - 19 - 2014 , 00:58

Teachers at all levels of education encourage their students to aspire higher. To test whether the students have actually heeded the teachers’ instructions, the teachers sometimes ask the students the profession they would like to take up after completing school.

It will interest you to note that even students who cannot say the alphabets well will say they want to be doctors, lawyers, nurses, pilots, engineers, scientists, lecturers, accountants, bank managers and journalists, among others, in future.

To console the teachers, however, some good friends of the teachers add teaching to their list of possible careers.

Teachers are always motivated by these kinds of responses by their students. In fact, any teacher will be highly disappointed when his or her students openly say “I want to be a newspaper vendor” in future.

Selling newspapers, to some people, is not an attractive venture from which one can live meaningfully. Others, however, think it is the sort of business for illiterates or people with little academic credentials.

That was what drew me closer to Mr James Binney, who had been a newspaper vendor in the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region for over 45 years.

Meaning of Sir James

It was sunny when I went to Mr Binney’s shop located in the Ministries. He has a bold inscription in front of his shop: ‘Sir James’.

He was about taking his lunch when I interrupted him. When I told him that I had come to interview him, he smiled and said, “Ei dam a?” to wit “is that so? in the Fante dialect.

He was surprised that I had come to interview him.

Explaining the secret behind his title ‘Sir James’, Mr Binney said he had been using the title for over 20 years since one German Baptist Missionary, Mr Peter Schowlk, who came to the Cape Coast Victory Bible Church ‘christened’ him.

He said the missionary gave him the name as a result of his hard work and commitment to his work and church activities.

“People call me Sir James and I like it. I have been using it for over 20 years”, he said.

Genesis of his trade

According to him, he started the newspaper business in 1971, having learned the trade from his aunt.

“My auntie was selling the papers so I used to help her when I closed from school until I completed middle school”, he explained, adding that after he had completed form four, he sent his application to labour offices, seeking a clerical job.

However, when his application proved futile, he became the apprentice of one Mr Acquaa who was the main newspaper vendor in the Cape Coast Metropolis and supplied other vendors including his auntie.

Mr Binney said apart from the newspaper selling, Mr Acquaa worked at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and that whenever he went to work, he handed over all the newspapers to him.

“Mr Acquaa had about 30 boys who helped him in the trade.

“Because most of the boys were students, they used to sell the papers before going to school so I did extra work when they went to school to get more money because the job was commission-based”, he said, adding “So I became very interested in the newspaper business”.

Mr Binney explained that around 1979, Mr Acquaa said the newspaper business was not profitable so he decided to hand over his shop to Mr Biney.

“I took over the work and started selling the papers together with a few boys I also employed”, he said.

Challenges in the trade

Mr Binney said although he had plans of furthering his education in one of the technical schools in Cape Coast after completing form four, he had no idea about what he was going to learn.

“I wanted to go to technical school but I didn’t know what I was going to learn there”, he said.

Mr Binney further explained that he never had it easy when he started the newspaper work, judging from the fact that his colleagues started mocking him for selling the papers.

“I must confess that it was very difficult for me taking up the business because my schoolmates continued to tease me, but with time, I overcame those challenges”, he said.

Patronage

The Cape Coast Jubilee School graduate lamented that sales had reduced drastically in recent times.

According to him, the business was very lucrative when he took over from Mr Acquaa.

“In fact, when I started the business, it was even the college students who were buying the papers. But now, they don’t even know what is going on in the country because they don’t read anymore”, he lamented.

He explained that he, for example, used to sell about 800 copies of The Mirror newspaper alone and that he had sold about 1,200 copies of newspapers in a day before.

“Now I can’t even sell 500 copies of all the different papers I have here”, he bemoaned, adding “I think that there is no money in the system that is why people are not buying the papers these days”.

“Also, these days, people don’t read, including even university students ”, he said, stressing “Although many people listen to radio or watch television, I don’t think it is the only factor affecting sales. People are really too lazy these days to read.”

The 59-year-old Mr Binney said newspaper subscription had gone down considerably in spite of the fact that there were many newspaper brands.

“In the past, even individuals were subscribing to newspapers besides the institutions they were working with”, he said.

He advised the media houses to identify the needs of their readers and tailor stories to meet such demands.

“If the reporters commit themselves more in the areas of investigative journalism or do more feature stories that would capture the interest of the readers, people will start buying the papers”, he advised, adding “they should report on things people need rather than only focusing on politics”.

Achievement

Mr Binney, who is also the Central Regional Chairman of the Newspaper Vendors Association, said although people underrate his job, he had chalked up some successes.

He said he supplied about 10 vendors in the region, adding that through his work, he had come into contact with many influential people including ministers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, journalists and teachers.

“One advantage of selling newspapers is that you meet a lot of prominent people. Sometimes, when I go to hospital, I am given special treatment because most of the doctors there buy newspapers from me”, he said with a smile.

He expressed worry that some of his sub-vendors failed to pay back the money from the sale of the papers supplied to them.

Family life

However, the father of three daughters - Ewura Esi, who has completed the Methodist University College; Edith, a first-year university student and Estherliza, a student in senior high school - said he had supported some of his siblings to further their education at the tertiary level.

Mr Binney, who could not hide is admiration for his wife, Constance, a teacher at the Mensah Sarbah Basic School in the Cape Coast Metropolis, expressed his appreciation to her, especially for her tremendous support.

The newspaper mogul however said he will not pass the baton of newspaper vending to any of his daughters when he retired.