Bauer Media set to close Cleo magazine
Bauer Media is set to close its young women’s magazine Cleo, which was founded by Ita Buttrose 44 years ago.
According to a News Corp report Bauer Media staff are expected to be notified of the closure today, including editor-in-chief Lucy Cousins.
The move comes after the Cleo website was shut down quietly in November by the publisher, and Mumbrella understands while a February edition is expected to be released the title will no longer exist by Easter.
It is the latest move in a tumultuous few months for the publisher after the unexpected departure of CEO David Goodchild last month. Mumbrella understands interim CEO Andreas Schoo arrives in Australia next week, when the closure is likely to be announced publicly.
Helen McCabe, editor-in-chief of the Australian Women’s Weekly, announced her departure from the magazine on Wednesday, while the company is yet to appoint a new sales director after boss Tony Kendall left at the end of last year
Cleo, which is best known for its Cleo Bachelor of the Year Awards, posted a circulation decline of 20.7 per cent at the end of last year, with a circulation of 42,212. New figures are due to be released early next month.
At the end of 2013 Bauer Media combined the editorial teams for Cleo and Dolly under Lucy Cousins as it looked to cut costs as revenues from print magazines continued to decline.
Founding editor Ita Buttrose told News Corp: “The writing was on the wall once I knew they were going to start stripping stories from other publications rather than commissioning stories here in Australia.
“It’s sad; it’s like a death in the family for me, but it hadn’t been the mag the Cleo team created all those years ago for some time now.”
It’s understood the annual Cleo Bachelor of the Year contest will continue, rebranded under the Cosmopolitan umbrella. The Cleo website now redirects to the Cosmo website.
The closure is the latest magazine to be shuttered by Bauer Media. Last year the company shut down controversial lads’ mag Zoo Weekly and motoring title Top Gear, and sold off three of its motorcycle titles to boutique publisher Citrus Media.
Bauer Media also announced it had wound up its distribution company Network Services on Wednesday.
A Bauer Media spokesman declined to comment, but it is understood publisher Sebastian Kadas is currently overseas, and will return next week.
Cleo was founded by Ita Buttrose and Kerry Packer in 1972, with Buttrose editing the title until 1975 when she was appointed editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Buttrose spoke about the early success of Cleo in this 2011 interview with Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9J03wsC0Yc
The first edition of the magazine included the first ever male centrefold starring Jack Thompson. The male centrefold was later scrapped in 1985 before being reinstated in 2005.
In 1984 Lisa Wilkinson, then 21, became the youngest ever editor of the magazine.
Cleo launched its Cleo Bachelor of the Year in 1993.
It was repositioned as a fashion and beauty magazine in 2008 by editor Sarah Oakes who also scrapped the magazine’s famous sealed section.
Miranda Ward
The writing was on this wall for some time, as you and Ita rightly say. But it’s a changing market and hard to come up with a formula that’s going to cut through to achieve the circ which Baeur clearly demands.
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This is a telling quote… “The writing was on the wall once I knew they were going to start stripping stories from other publications rather than commissioning stories here…”
save money by lowering the quality = unsatisfied customers = lowering the sales…
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I would be more concerned for the people at Pacific Magazines. At least Bauer has the luxury of “stripping stories from other magazines”. If Bauer can’t make it work financially the Pacific must be royally screwed.
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So sorry to hear. Any Cleo ad sales managers or writers looking for work should email me! Sophie[at]hellomay[dot]com[dot]au
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Super sad. As someone who worked on Cleo for a few years it’s hard to say goodbye to something with such a trailblazing heritage. 44 years is no mean feat, big kudos to all who contributed.
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It is hard to understand how anyone ever thought a foreign publishing organisation could run an Australian operation which requires local content and understanding for success. That is not to say there are not good people at Baeur as there are. It is just that the market here is totally different than in other countries.
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@Sophie – really? A little tactless with the timing and self promotion as people face redundancy. An ad in the directory would suffice.
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Mag Fan first up commenting with out publishing your actual name is the very height of tacky. If you have an opinion at least have the guts to put your name to it.
Secondly I don’t think it’s tactless at all. Ive worked for all the big publishing companies and Ive been a part of titles that have been closed down, sold on and down sized and it’s a horrible horrible feeling I know all too well. So whilst we do have ad’s placed I know many Cleo staff will be reading this thread and we have jobs available so it was posted in the hope that anyone interested would see it and hopefully feel a little bit better about their situation, as I did when I came across such links when the publishing company I worked for went into liquidation.
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Bauer. They came, they saw, they closed.
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Are cleo and Cosmo really offering anything that can’t be found for free on the web? I’m not surprised it’s shit down, and it honestly won’t be missed/noticed
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In the words of Chisel: “How could I not believe what Ita tells me to …”
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I think Sophie is related to Noel
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@Monthly Reader are you 5 years old?
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FYI: Lisa Wilkinson was NOT 21 when she became the youngest editor of CLEO. She became editor of DOLLY at 21 and was appointed CLEO editor 4 years later. Please – it’s a sad day for the mag, you could at least have the courtesy to get the facts right.
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Sophie, as a Bauer employee, (still with a job for the moment), I think offering a possible next step to good people who need it is absolutely fine. I don’t find it tacky, or self-promoting, and I think anyone who can put themselves in the staff’s position would feel the same. Good on you,
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To all those knocking Sophie, back off. Cleo staff will obviously be looking elsewhere and what Sophie has done is commendable. I’ve just been made redundant but without someone offering hope; that sucks! You need hope to balance all the despair!
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So: founding editor Ita Buttrose told News Corp: “The writing was on the wall once I knew they were going to start stripping stories from other publications rather than commissioning stories here in Australia.
LOL.
As a sub there under the [edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons] regime, one of my jobs was to take text purchased from OS mags like Seventeen, Self, and other US-UK titles and “Aussie” it up, by changing major cities to Syd-Melb-Bris and sometimes to chucking in the names of places like Bendigo, Toowoomba etc. Even most of the “readers” letters were pilfered from other mags.
Jenny from Jannali wanting to know about her period discharge was originally Lucy from Leicester.
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It’s sad that people have lost their jobs but magazines likely these are harmful as they perpetuate stereotypes many women can never aspire to.
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ABC news online reports that Bauer have denied that the magazine will close.
Story is here
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....ay/7091266
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Hi Steven,
Nowhere in the ABC article does it say the magazine isn’t closing – it says it is ‘speculation’.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Time to refill my popcorn
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I’m surprised at the huge number of comments published everywhere that reflect sadness over Cleo closing down. For years and years, women’s magazines like Cleo were heavily criticised for making young women feel incredibly insecure about themselves, thus propelling them to develop anorexia and bulimia, and an exponential rise in cosmetic surgery. And let’s not forget that those mags promoted the notion that it’s more important to have a career than children, and that women can have it all, while omitting the fact that all women face a very real biological clock…consequently in Australia, we now have a huge number of women who missed out on having children. Everybody who vaguely supports women’s rights should be glad Cleo is shutting down.
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