Women’s Health, Men’s Health magazines return under Paragon Media

Women’s Health and Men’s Health magazines are being resurrected by niche publisher Paragon Media.

Magazine editors Jacqui Mooney and Scott Henderson. Picture: Britta Campion

After an extremely difficult year for the Australian magazine industry, Women’s Health and Men’s Health are being resurrected by niche publisher Paragon Media.

Paragon Media owner and chief executive Ian Brooks has signed a long-term licensing deal for the two brands with US group Hearst Magazines with plans to exploit the brands across the digital space with new-look websites and social media pages on Facebook and Instagram next month.

Plans are also afoot to ramp up its podcast and video slate, alongside the return of the magazines on February 11 as well as events such as the Women in Sport Awards and Fit Night Out.

Mr Brooks said they are trusted and credible brands, and there is a growing appetite for content on health and wellness in the wake of coronavirus crisis.

“They’re just fantastically strong brands, and we’re focusing on the brand rather than just the print side,” Mr Brooks told The Australian.

“It would be an absolute waste if someone didn’t resurrect them, there were quite a few publishers vying for them so I was fortunate enough to get my hands on them.”

Mr Brooks has also brought back the titles’ former editors, Jacqui Mooney and Scott Henderson, and most of the team that worked on the titles at Pacific Magazines. Mooney is raring to go with the relaunch of Women’s Health, which has been around since 2007, after taking a few months off.

“I think there will be a huge appetite for it — 2020 has been a really eventful year and I think that people have reassessed their lives and their health and what wellness means to them,” she said.

“I think at this moment in time, health and wellness has never been more important and incredible health information is what our brand and also Men’s Health was built on.”

Mr Brooks said that Paragon, which publishes a handful of niche titles such as EcoGeneration and Daily Cargo News, has fared relatively well during the year.

“My business model has always been trying to choose the number one in a relatively small category, so each of my titles are number one in that particular industry,” Mr Brooks said.

He declined to provide any financial figures.

The return of the health magazines comes after a fraught year for the broader magazine industry, which saw the two biggest publishers, Bauer Media and Pacific, brought together under the one roof in May after the Bauer-owned family business forked out $40m for Seven West Media’s magazine division.

Just a few days after the deal, which was struck late last year well before the coronavirus crisis, Bauer laid off around 60 Pacific staff and halted the publication of several titles including Women’s Health, Men’s Health and InStyle.

The Bauer family then sold its newly merged Australian magazine business to private equity firm Mercury Capital in June, and a month later they permanently shuttered eight magazines, including the two health magazines, plus Harper’s BAZAAR, InStyle and ELLE and axed dozens of staff. Mercury has since renamed Bauer Media to Are Media.