Bauer Media closes Men’s Style magazine
Bauer Media has ended its nightmare year by axing another publication just days before Christmas, with the next edition of Men’s Style to be the final edition, Mumbrella can reveal.
The closure affects staff members including editor Michael Pickering, fashion director Kim Payne, and grooming editor, Elisabeth King. Sales staff are less likely to be directly affected as the commercial team sells across a number of titles.
A spokesperson from Bauer said: “Bauer Media confirms that the final issue of Men’s Style will be released this summer. We would like to thank all of our readers and advertisers who have supported the magazine over the years, and the staff who worked hard to produce it.”
The closure of the quarterly magazine comes just short of the title’s 15th anniversary. Staff were told after the edition went to press.
It caps off the worst year in the history of Australia’s biggest magazine publisher.
In March the title axed Rugby League Week Magazine, just two weeks into the NRL season. That was shortly followed by Cosmopolitan editor Claire Askew’s departure later that month and the closure of Shop Til You Drop magazine.
In June, Bauer Media lost Australia’s largest defamation case to Rebel Wilson, who was awarded more than $4m in damages.
Shortly afterwards, CEO Nick Chan left the company after just 12 months in his role, while Fiona Legdin, general manager for fashion, health and beauty, Cat Bowe, BauerWorks’ first brand partnership director, Australian Women’s Weekly editor Kim Doherty also left the company.
Meanwhile, Chan was replaced by Bauer CEO Paul Dykzeul, who flagged more redundancies and the axing to titles in an interview with Mumbrella.
The latest closure comes four months after Bauer Media axed its Good Health editorial team, shifting the monthly title’s production to Bauer New Zealand.
Shortly afterwards, Dykzeul announced the closure of custom publishing arm BauerWorks, and a shuffle of the publisher’s executive line up.
And less than a month ago, the German-owned company axed Yours, Recipes+ and Homes+. It also closed publication Myer Emporium and saw its Weight Watchers contract come to an end.
A very sad day for men’s publishing! Been a big loyal reader and lover of Men’s Style mag for years.
Sad to see another great publication fall to the demise of print. I have a hunch it’s not that Aussies’ interest in magazines has waned, but rather we simply don’t have the time and / or money to invest anymore.
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Merry Christmas Bauer. You shouldn’t have. Pffft pfft.
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+1
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“The worst year” – what has this been measured by?
Bauer is a multi-platform publisher, their properties span far beyond print. Why waste your money on something that isn’t working for you if you could save it and invest in areas where the business is thriving?
Sad days, but in order to grow you must adapt. The media landscape is changing. Publishers need to stay on the pulse.
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That is a sad closure. But as John Alexander once said: “no brand can be guaranteed eternity”… Men’s style was an enigma, initially an odd fit in the stable of blokey ACP titles, and it lived longer than most of those other men’s magazines. It continued to be an odd fit for Bauer, who never quite grasped its power as an upmarket ad model – or environmental sell. MS also kept GQ honest in its relationships with advertisers, proving again and again that competition was healthy. A Big shout out to editor Michael Pickering, an enormous but unsung hero of content creation. I look forward to seeing who will snap up this talented operator and his unrivalled work ethic.
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To be fair, it was a poor mans GQ….
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Nope. People still love magazines and all of my surveys year after year find they would prefer to have a print publication as against a web / PDF based one.
The problem is simply advertising; when advertisers stop thinking that a full page ad, to justify its existence, must make sales. This is clearly a nonsense and always has been.
But they’ll blindly place web ad after web ad in the belief this will give immediate sales, despite the almost universal hatred of them and the proof they simply don’t work.
But huge resources in terms of $$ are poured into PR companies who are tasked to create “storytelling” and then get that out to publishers who are expected to print it for free on the grounds it is “meaningful content”.
If those $$ went to advertising thus allowing publishers to put together and print real paper magazines, their stories could still be told, in a medium the public actually likes – and as a bonus, journalists, feature writers, reviewers, layout folk, editors, printers AND publishers would still all have jobs, the public would be happy and all would be good.
But no doubt the PR people would not be I imagine.
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@david hague writing as a lover of print I appreciate your passion, but also as someone who earns their crust in digital I’ve a few questions:
– What is the sample size you’re surveying?
– What are their demographics?
– What is the subject matter of your publication
Here in AU then goodship print has well as truly sailed unless you’re:
– A cookery title
– One which resonates with creatives/craft centric females
– A B2B title
– A premium insert such as AFR magazine
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Tried to transition the business too late into digital with no resources/money to do it well. Harmmoraging money not enough to keep a good product and market to trade = falls off radar to agencies employing 20 yos who only buy what they consume themselves.
Run by out of touch accountants, editors and poor advertising sales leaders, no wonder the rats are swimming away..
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poor Danny Ricciardo, he looks like a sweet potato dressed as a private detective in this pic.
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Yeah, absolutely. I can’t go five minutes without someone mentioning some great story they read on the To Love network. Bauer killing it.
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Hi there,
I am very sad that Yours magazine has ceased publication. It is the best magazine of all time. I have looked forward every fortnight to receiving this Magazine.
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Fingerprints, agree strongly on Michael Pickering, a great editor who transformed Men’s Style, got the bikinis off the cover, made the magazine a great read, bumped up circulation and probably bought it three more years of life beyond what it might otherwise have had.
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