Magazine queen Deborah Thomas tips Bauer will axe Pacific titles

Former magazine boss Deborah Thomas expects Bauer Media to shutter several magazines from its newly Pacific Magazines.

Deborah Thomas at her home on Sunday. Picture: Adam Yip

Former magazine boss Deborah Thomas expects Bauer Media to shutter several magazines from its newly acquired business Pacific Magazines, which publishes about 20 titles including New Idea, Marie Claire and InStyle.

The German-owned family business on Friday finally completed its $40m acquisition of ­Pacific from the Kerry Stokes-controlled Seven West Media, only two days after temporarily suspending publishing of some of its magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, OK! and NW.

The Pacific deal was struck last October, well before the coronavirus crisis wiped out advertising revenue. Now Bauer needs to quickly slash costs, like the broader media industry.

“There would have to be titles in the Pacific portfolio that may be shut down in the same way that they’ve shut down the four at Bauer during this period where the advertising dollar is just not happening,” Ms Thomas, who spent 27 years at Australian Consolidated Press, which was bought by Bauer, told The Australian.

“I’m sure they’ve already made decisions around what magazines they’re keeping and what magazines they’re not keeping and what they’ll shut for this period of no advertising. I’d imagine on Monday we’re going to hear more about that.”

The industry is abuzz about the future of Pacific’s Marie Claire, given it directly competes against Bauer’s Elle and Harper’s for ad money and readers, according to a magazine executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Another executive holds little hope of Elle and Harper’s ever returning to the market as a printed product, and there is also little hope that InStyle will survive.

Ms Thomas, a long-time editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly, said it was hard to know which Pacific magazines could be halted due to licensing deals with international owners of the titles.

“It may not purely be a financial decision; it may be a decision around contract details,” she said.

Bauer’s decision to suspend the printing of some of its magazines will affect up to 140 Bauer staff, with 70 laid off and a similar number stood down for a couple of months.

Bauer’s Australian business is understood not to be eligible for the JobKeeper scheme. In order to be eligible, the parent company in Hamburg would have to open its books and show a sharp drop in business. As well as magazine ­operations in Germany and ­Poland, Bauer operates more than 100 radio stations across ­Europe and the UK.

The company surprised many last month with its decision to shut down its magazine operations in New Zealand and lay off 237 staff, blaming the “severe economic” hit of the coronavirus.

Before the economic crisis, Bauer was understood to be looking to leave the Australian market, which it entered in 2012 by acquiring the Packer family’s former magazine business, ACP, for $500m. But they first needed to bolster its local operations, which meant buying Pacific, with a view to selling the enlarged business to private equity.

Bauer’s Australian boss, Brendon Hill, has remained silent on the group’s plans.

Ms Thomas believes her former boss, the late media mogul Kerry Packer, would have closed half the magazines and focused on the rest during the crisis: “I think part of the problem may be that the investment hasn’t been there in keeping up the quality.”

Ms Thomas said it was heartbreaking to see the magazine industry being decimated following years of decline.