Bauer CEO Brendon Hill insists there are ‘absolutely’ plans to reinstate its eight suspended titles
There are ‘absolutely’ plans to reinstate the eight magazines which have been suspended since the merger between Bauer Media and Pacific Magazines according to CEO Brendon Hill. The hold on the titles is entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he insisted to staff last week, not the impacts of the merge.
Hill also said he had ‘no idea’ why the brands inside the publisher would change as they were ‘currently working wonderfully’. Since the merger took place a week ago almost 250 staff have been made redundant or stood down from the German-owned magazine business.
Hill says the eight titles that have been suspended will return to operations, ideally in time for on-sale September
Hill confirmed none of the staff who have been stood down will be eligible for payments under the government’s Job Keeper scheme. As Bauer is a global business, said Hill, it must provide proof of a 50% decline in turnover, which it cannot currently do.
Speaking to staff, Hill referred to Bauer and Pacific as ‘two great businesses’ which had ‘finally come together’ and would be a new, stronger, company. The publisher is still committed to its partnership with Seven, he said, and would be sharing content to ‘supercharge our digital strategies’ and collaborate with Seven brands and shows.
Hill said NW and OK, two weekly titles which were suspended very early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, were held due to largely relying on airport sales as part of bundles. That situation is being reviewed weekly, he said, and in the meantime, readers could turn to WHO.
Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Instyle, Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Good Health were all paused due to their reliance on an ad model that was hit hard, particularly in the luxury space. In July 2017 Bauer axed its entire Australian Good Health editorial team, leaving the title to be produced out of New Zealand. It has since closed its New Zealand offices.
Hill said all eight titles would be returned as soon as possible, with an aim to hit on-sale September timings. The business is currently ‘refining’ team structures and would share announcements relevant to that in the coming weeks.
Shane Sutton has been confirmed as group publisher of Homes, Fiona Connolly as group publisher weeklies, Susie Loxton will lead the luxury arm of the business and Nicola Byers’ role has been expanded to include the Australian Women’s Weekly, Country Style and Better Homes and Gardens.
Digitally the leadership team remains the same, led by Fiona Baker, Lorna Gray, Amber Manto. Operations are being led by Dean Burge, Neil Donnelly, Tessa Rex and Annabel Hodges.
“Currently working wonderfully,” Brendon?
Please, try telling that to the remaining staff who are now working unbelievable hours to compensate for having already lean teams slashed beyond the bone. All the while these staff are mourning the loss of many of their colleagues and wondering how much longer things will be operable while Bauer continues single-handedly demolishing many of Australia’s beloved magazines.
As for Bauer’s hubbing strategy? We’ve seen content hubbing trialled overseas and it DOES NOT WORK for premium titles. You cannot produce premium content on less than a shoestring of a budget.
The way things are going, when the economy does recover, all advertisers will be taking their money elsewhere because the magazines won’t be what they used to be. In the case of “stood-down” titles like InStyle, how do you expect to bring these back? The entire team has been made redundant. All existing relationships between the magazine and advertisers are now non-existent and no one knows how to run the title is left.
Please Bauer, the best thing you can do now is sell these magazines to a company that actually cares about magazines so they can continue running. Australians love these magazines and they’ve been mainstays on the media landscape for many years. It’s disgusting they’re being run into the ground like this.
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“a new stronger company”???
This is just insulting, patronising and beyond out of touch. No one is buying that sort of rubbish, you idiot.
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