Bauer’s new owners dump eight magazines

Harper’s BAZAAR, InStyle, Men’s Health and OK! are among eight more titles canned due to the pandemic.

Bauer Media Australia boss Brendon Hill. Picture: Supplied

The coronavirus crisis has decimated Australia’s magazine industry, with eight titles including Harper’s BAZAAR, InStyle, ELLE, Men’s Health and OK! shuttered and dozens of jobs axed following a double digit drop in advertising revenue.

The magazine industry, known in its heyday for glossy covers featuring supermodels and princesses and dozens of ad pages, has been struggling to attract paying customers for several years, which has led to a raft of closures.

Audiences, particularly younger readers, have gravitated to social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, as well as websites for their entertainment and lifestyle news and gossip.

Readership has been declining for years, which has in turn hit ad revenue, but the coronavirus crisis has made things much worse, with government lockdowns hurting magazine sales at train stations and airports.

Over the past decade, seven of the top 20 magazines, including Bauer Media’s NW, Cosmopolitan, Dolly and Cleo have been axed. Of those remaining, only Australian Geographic has seen its readership rise by 64 per cent to 674,000 over the same period.

A string of other magazines including Grazia, Famous, Yours, Penthouse Men’s Style have also ended up on the scrapheap, hurt by a shrinking ad revenue pool as brands turned to social media and influencers to spruik their wares.

Bauer’s popular Women’s Weekly has seen its readership drop 41 per cent to around 1.36 million over the past seven years, according to the latest industry figures from Enhanced Media Metrics Australia, whose figures date back to 2013. Bauer’s other household title, Woman’s Day, has fallen more than 35 per cent to about 1.35 million.

Former Harper’s boss, Kellie Hush, said it had been heartbreaking for the magazine and broader media industry, but also the fashion industry.

“It just makes it very limited to where they can work now; I just worry about that independent voice. We’ve lost some really strong powerful independent fashion voices,” Ms Hush told The Australian.

Ms Hush, who left Harper’s in 2018 after six years, said the Bauer family “never really understood luxury fashion magazines”.

“Their publishing model over there is very much about cheap and large circulation. So that whole advertising model was always a challenge for them business wise.”

Vogue Australia editorial director Edwina McCann said it was “a very sad day” for former colleagues and friends” but not entirely surprising.

Ms McCann, who was editor of Harper’s BAZAAR for three years during its ownership by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, said Bauer failed to capitalise on its brands, diversifying its audience and reducing its reliance on the advertisers.

Just days after taking control of Bauer’s 43 local titles, private equity group Mercury Capital announced on Tuesday the closure of the eight titles including ELLE, Women’s Health and Good Health, blaming the coronavirus crisis for their demise.

With fewer people travelling at airports and train stations during the lockdown, circulation has tanked, and companies have slashed their ad and marketing budgets.

The eight magazines were suspended in May, with Bauer blaming travel restrictions on transit-reliant titles such as NW and OK!, and declining advertising revenue at the other six titles. The decision then affected up to 140 staff, with 70 laid off and a similar number stood down.

Bauer said Tuesday that it would “lose valued editorial, sales and production staff” as a result of the magazine closures, but didn’t provide a specific figure.

Bauer’s local boss, Brendon Hill, said it had been a “challenging time” for the group, which Mercury bought for less than $50m, a fraction of the $500m it splashed out to secure the Packer family’s ACP mastheads in 2012.

Second lockdown in Victoria

“We, like many other media companies, have deeply felt the impact of COVID-19. The reinstatement of these titles and teams was always dependent on the advertising market bouncing back and the return of domestic and international travel,” Mr Hill said.

“Despite promising signs from advertisers in recent weeks, this has not outweighed the medium-term outlook for these titles.”

Plus, with a second lockdown in Victoria and minimal travel, it was not “feasible to sufficiently distribute NW and OK! without transit channels”, Mr Hill said.

“The financial impact of these factors and the ongoing economic uncertainty makes the return and sustainability of these titles no longer viable. We have been forced to reset and future-proof the business like all of the media industry has.”

Prior to Mercury’s deal with the Bauer family, Bauer’s local business paid $40m to buy Pacific Magazines from Seven West Media in May. That deal was struck late last year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vogue and The Australian are published by News Corp Australia.