Cleo closes after 44 years: Website shuts before Christmas as staff expected to be informed

THE closure of iconic magazine CLEO is imminent, ending a 44-year chapter in Australia’s media history. Some of its staff may not be aware the publication is about to fold.

THE closure of iconic magazine CLEO is imminent, ending a 44-year chapter in Australia’s media history.

Sources at Bauer Media Group say staff are expected to be notified of the closure on Monday, including the magazine’s editor Lucy Cousins.

Lucy Cousins. Picture: Christian Gilles

At 21, Lisa Wilkinson became youngest ever editor of the magazine.

Cleo’s website was quietly shut down just before Christmas, and traffic is currently being diverted to the site of Cosmopolitan Australia magazine, a title also owned by Bauer Media.

A Bauer spokesman confirmed the website’s closure but said they had no announcement to make.

The publishing industry will no doubt be in shock at the news of Cleo’s closure, the brainchild of Kerry Packer and Ita Buttrose in the 1970s and the focus of 2011 miniseries Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo.

The magazine, which has been helmed by some of the country’s most influential women in media including Deborah Thomas and Lisa Wilkinson, was also a pioneer in Australian media thanks to its inclusion of the male centrefold and sexually explicit sealed sections.

Studio 10’s Ita Buttrose holds the first issue of Cleo, which she edited in November 1972.

But Cleo’s future has looked shaky in recent years, with Bauer merging the magazine’s editorial team with that of teen title Dolly last January due to declining circulation figures.

The fashion title’s demise has been steady, with its circulation now at 42,212, down from about 150,000 eight years prior.

The 2016 cover.

Jack Thompson on the cover in 1975

Founding editor Ita Buttrose said the news was like a death in the family but she was not surprised at the magazine’s impending closure.

“The writing was on the wall once I knew they were going to start stripping stories from other publications rather than commissioning stories here in Australia,” she said.

Journalist Ita Buttrose with media mogul Kerry Packer at the 20th Anniversary of magazine Cleo in 1992.

“It’s sad; it’s like a death in the family for me, but it hadn’t been the mag the Cleo team created all those years ago for some time now.”

It’s understood the annual Cleo Bachelor of the Year contest will continue despite the magazine’s closure, rebranded under the Cosmopolitan umbrella.

The move follows the departure of Australian Women’s Weekly editor Helen McCabe after six years at the helm.

Cleo magazine first ever male centrefold, 1975, was actor Jack Thompson.

CLEO TIMELINE

November 1972: Cleo hits newsstands and included the first ever male centrefold starring Jack Thompson

1973: Cleo’s circulation reaches 200,000

1984: Lisa Wilkinson is appointed editor

1997: Deborah Thomas is appointed editor

1985: The male centrefold is scrapped

1993: Cleo Bachelor of the Year is launched

2005: The male centrefold is reinstated

2008: Editor Sarah Oakes scraps the Sealed Section and repositions Cleo as a fashion and beauty magazine

2011: ABC airs successful miniseries Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo

2012: Bauer Media becomes publisher of CLEO

2013: Lucy Cousins appointed editor-in-chief of Cleo and Dolly