Bauer sacks 60 Pacific Magazines staff

Bauer Media has sacked 60 staff as its newly acquired business Pacific Magazines and halted publishing magazines, including InStyle, Men’s Health and Women’s Health.

Bauer Media has sacked 60 staff as its newly acquired business Pacific Magazines and halted publishing magazines, including InStyle, Men’s Health and Women’s Health, as the embattled German publisher looks to slash costs as advertising revenue drops during the coronavirus crisis.

The German-owned family business is understood to have laid-off the entire team at women’s magazine InStyle and closed Pacific’s online beauty website, Beauty Crew. All beauty editors, including those on magazines, have also been made redundant, a magazine executive told The Australian on Monday.

Marie Claire, one of Pacific’s key magazines, has not been as heavily impacted but some staff are still believed to be heading out the door.

Men's Health magazine is one of the titles that will no longer be published.

Pacific’s Home Beautiful magazine is also believed to have lost staff, according to another magazine executive.

A Bauer spokesman declined to comment on the group’s plans for Pacific.

Bauer’s second round of staff cuts and suspension of magazines being published comes just three days after wrapping up its $40m acquisition of Pacific from Kerry Stokes controlled-Seven West Media, which has a $541m debt pile.

The acquisition brings together Bauer’s 36 titles, including Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day, under the same roof as Pacific’s 20 magazines, including top sellers New Idea and Better Homes & Gardens.

Pacific had less than 200 staff before the Bauer deal was struck last October, with Bauer subsequently instructing Pacific to tell some staff that they wouldn’t be coming across at the completion of the deal.

Bauer’s move to cut Pacific staff and titles was forecast by former magazine boss Deborah Thomas, who told The Australian that she expected Bauer to shutter several Pacific magazines.

Bauer announced last Wednesday that it would “temporarily suspend” publishing some of its magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, OK! and NW, affecting up to 140 Bauer staff. About 70 have been laid-off and a similar number stood down for a couple of months.

Last month, Bauer shut down its magazine operations in New Zealand and laid-off 237 staff, blaming the “severe economic” hit of the coronavirus, which came as a surprise to many industry players.

Bauer’s move on staunch rival Pacific last October was well before the coronavirus crisis wiped out ad revenue. Fast-forward to now, Bauer’s Australian boss Brendon Hill is under increasing pressure to cut costs, like his counterparts across the media industry.