Dolly magazine’s print edition axed after 46 years

TODAY host Lisa Wilkinson, who became Dolly magazine’s editor at the age of 21, has opened up on why she thinks the iconic teen publication was axed.

TODAY host Lisa Wilkinson, who became the youngest editor of Dolly magazine at the age of 21, has described news of the publication’s closure as “inevitable”.

Bauer Media announced on Wednesday it would pull the pin on the print edition of the iconic teen girl magazine after 46 years. The decision comes just seven months after the publisher decided to reduce the magazine to a bimonthly print edition and focus on digital platforms.

Wilkinson, who at 21 became the youngest editor to helm the publication in 1981, mourned the end of the magazine, saying media executives perhaps weren’t quick enough to evolve digitally.

“I’m incredibly sad hearing the news and feel for all the journalists who are losing their jobs but in the ever-changing world — and possibly an industry that was slow to recognise the changes that were happening at warped speed — it looks like it was inevitable,” she told news.com.au.

Wilkinson, who later moved on to be editor of the now-defunct Cleo, attributed her success in the industry to her early years at the teen “bible”.

“It was certainly the making of my career. I learnt everything from the ground up when I worked at Dolly. I mean, where else could you start as the receptionist at 19 and be the editor at 21?” she said. “It was a bible for teenage girls. There’ll be a lot of women around the country who will feel a tinge of sadness to see the passing of a magazine that was at the centre of their teenage years.”

Chief executive of Bauer Media Nick Chan confirmed the closure in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, saying a growing digital audience had overtaken the magazine’s print readership.

“Dolly readers predominantly engage with the brand on digital and social platforms and they do so with greater frequency than is possible with a bimonthly magazine, this means it’s no longer feasible to continue publishing the magazine on a regular basis,” he said.

Print circulation of Dolly has been on a steady decline — with a January-to-June circulation of 30,010 — but the publisher says its online traffic for November was the biggest in Dolly’s history.

And while Chan said the brand will continue to live on, publishing content “exclusively on the channels today’s teens prefer to interact with most,” Wilkinson said this change in focus to online and mobile platforms came too late.

“It (Dolly) was still relevant — the difference was this is a product that comes out once a month and the internet is all about speedy delivery,” she said.

Lisa Wilkinson, at 21, became the youngest ever editor of Dolly.

“It’s a pity that the management at the time — with the effect the internet was going to be having on that one market that was the first to pick up and embrace technology — that there wasn’t a stronger reaction to making sure Dolly and Cleo had a stronger presence on the net.

“There was a feeling that the net was just a passing fad and ‘we’ve got the strong brand and the relationship with the audience that no website could hope to reproduce’.

“And certainly that was short term thinking and it was old school thinking. But when you have a stronghold on a market that a lot of those magazines used to have, you can understand you wouldn’t want to share that easily.”

From its inception in 1970, Dolly quickly became known for frank stories on sex, relationships and bodies and regular features like Dolly Doctor.

It’s also responsible for finding some of Australia’s biggest talent. A young Nicole Kidman featured in its pages and Dolly’s yearly modelling competition discovered a 13-year-old Miranda Kerr in 1997 and kickstarted her international modelling career.

Circulation of the magazine has been in steady decline for several years. In 2012, circulation between January and June was sitting at 92,153. By 2014, it had slumped to 50,125 for the same period. By the July-to-December period of 2015 — just before it was dropped back to a bimonthly magazine — circulation was at a low of 28,030.

The final bimonthly issue of Dolly, with three different collectors covers featuring Australian band In Stereo, goes on sale December 5.

The mag championed social issues.

‘Is my body normal?” Dolly had the answer.

Originally published as Dolly magazine’s print edition axed after 46 years