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Are Media hires Melissa Mason as digital editor across Elle and Marie Claire

Melissa Mason has been appointed as digital editor across Are Media titles Elle and Marie Claire.

It’s a return to the company for Mason, who began her career as a beauty writer for Bauer and spent more than two years at Pacific Magazines, well before Bauer bought Pacific Magazines from Seven for $40 million last year, only for Bauer to sell to private equity firm, Mercury Capital.

Mason joins the magazine business from Broadsheet, where she acted as content director for five months after four years at Pedestrian Group.

She held a number of roles during her time at Nine’s Pedestrian, including managing editor, and senior style and features editor. Mason also had a two year stint as editor of News Corp’s Primped.com.au.

“Elle and Marie Claire are such powerhouse digital properties in Australia and long-time leaders in fashion and women’s media,” said Fiona Baker, Are Media’s digital director of fashion and entertainment.

“With her wealth of experience in media, Mel will be pivotal in driving forward the digital editorial strategies of these two luxury brands in 2021, collaborating closely with the Marie Claire magazine team and building on Elle’s success as a digital-only brand here in Australia.”

Bauer closed eight titles before the sale to Mercury Capital and consequent rebrand to Are Media was completed, including Elle. However, the title was relaunched in November as digital-only.

That same month, Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings (DCR) revealed marieclaire.com.au was Australia’s best performing fashion and beauty site with a record monthly audience of 700,000.

“I’m so excited to work across these market-leading brands,” Mason said of her new role.

“Both Elle and Marie Claire are renowned globally for championing women and bringing their audience smart, engaging content across everything from fashion and beauty to cultural and social issues.

“There is an opportunity in Australia to provide women with content that entertains them and also engages with them on a deeper level. As for the fashion content in both these brands, it is second to none.”

Are Media, then Bauer, made more than 150 roles redundant last year as magazine ad spend plummeted by as much as 62%. According to the most recent Standard Media Index figures, spend is still back 35.8% in the magazine market.

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