Jobs go as Bauer halts publication on some magazines

More than 70 staff will be made redundant as magazine group Bauer hits pause on some titles until the economy improves.

AWW publisher Bauer Media is halting some titles until the economy improves. Picture: Supplied.

Bauer Media will temporarily suspend publishing some of its magazines, understood to include Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, OK! and NW, as part of restructuring plans, as the coronavirus crisis wipes out its advertising revenue.

The move will affect up to 140 staff, with 70 to be laid off and a similar number stood down, the embattled publisher said in a brief statement on Wednesday.

The announcement comes just weeks after Bauer shuttered its operations in New Zealand, and less than 24 hours after it cancelled the Logie Awards, the biggest annual event in the Australian television industry’s calendar.

Bauer, whose TV Week magazine is the main sponsor of the ­Logies, made the surprise announcement on Tuesday night, despite nominations set to be announced at the end of May.

Bauer is due to wrap up its acquisition of Seven West Media’s Pacific Magazines division for $40m on Friday, after the parties extended the original deadline earlier this month.The deal, which was struck last October before the economic crisis, would result in Bauer’s 36 titles, including Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day, coming together with Pacific’s roughly 20 mastheads such as New Idea and That’s Life!

The German family-owned magazine publisher would not say how many magazines would cease printing. However, the titles would continue to operate online.

“The decision to resume print publication will be made once the trading environment improves,” Bauer said.

At a meeting with staff on Wednesday, local Bauer boss Brendon Hill described the current COVID-19 crisis as “unprecedented times”. He said: “The COVID-19 crisis and the strict measures being taken to control it are having a profound impact on the Australian economy and any business that operates in it.

“This has led to a sharp decrease in advertising revenues in Australia over the short term and we have had to reshape our organisation accordingly.

A spokesman for Bauer declined to comment further.

Bauer’s future in Australia remains under a cloud, with the group understood to be considering exiting the market, which it entered in 2012 by acquiring James Packer’s ACP Magazines for $500m. Bauer has hired accounting and advisory firm EY to help with its strategic review.

Bauer last August was considering closing its up-market women’s magazines Elle and Harper’s Bazaar.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the industry was battling technology giants Google and Facebook for advertising clients in an uneven playing field.

The Morrison government recently announced that the US-based tech giants would be forced to pay media companies for ­siphoned news content posted on their sites under a landmark decision to impose a mandatory code of conduct on digital platforms.

In its most recent financial report lodged with corporate regulator ASIC, Bauer swung to a net profit of $6.3m in 2018, due to cost cuts across editorial, marketing and advertising. That offset a 13.7 per cent fall in revenue to $224.3m.

The result compared to a net loss of $11.3m in 2017.

Bauer had just over 740 staff at the end of 2018, according to its 2018 financial report.